The head of the Suez Canal Authority Osama Rabie, announced on Tuesday that the navigation movement in the vital waterway during January 2022 made unprecedented records.
He explained that the figures that were achieved came in terms of the number of ships, net tonnages and the revenues achieved to become the highest compared to the performance rates achieved during the successive months of January throughout the history of the canal.
Rabie indicated that the Suez Canal witnessed the crossing of 1774 ships from both directions during January 2022, compared to the crossing of 1594 ships during January 2021, with a total net tonnage of 106.1 million tons, compared to 104.2 million tons during January 2021.
He explained that the regularity of navigation movement in the canal had a great impact on increasing the total revenues achieved, as the authority’s revenues during January 2022 recorded about US$ 544.7 million, excluding navigation services, compared to US$ 495.7 million during the same month of last year, an increase of US$ 49 million at 9.9 percent.
Rabie added that the navigational reports during January 2022 monitored a significant increase in the transit rates of various types of ships compared to the same month of last year, as the number of bulk vessels increased by 25.1 percent, and container ships transiting the canal increased by 11.5 percent.
He stressed that the movement of ships transiting the canal during January 2022, which exceeded the transit rates of ships in the same month throughout the history of the canal, including the past two years 2020 and 2021 (the years of the coronavirus crisis), gives a clear indication of the success of the flexible marketing and pricing policies pursued by the authority in dealing with global economic variables.
Rabie pointed out that these policies succeeded in reducing the negative impact of coronavirus outbreak on the shipping industry, which resulted in gaining the confidence of customers and attracting new shipping lines, as the marketing policies contributed to attracting 336 ships during January 2022, representing 19 percent of the total ships that crossed during the month.
