Suez Canal records record monthly revenue in April

Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority announced Sunday an all-time sales report for April, incomes $629 million following a series of toll hikes for vessels transiting the critical waterway.

Connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, the canal bills for roughly 10 percent of world maritime trade and is one of Egypt’s major assets of foreign currency revenues.

Despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent rise in oil prices, a record number of 114.5 million tonnes of cargo moved through the canal in April, a statement said.

This earned state coffers $629 million in transit fees, or 13.6 percent more than April 2021 and the highest monthly figure ever recorded, Suez Canal Authority chief Osama Rabie said in a statement.

The SCA has hiked passage tolls for transiting vessels, including fuel tankers, twice this year.

The April earnings come as Egypt’s economy has been hard hit by the fallout from the war in Ukraine.

Foreign reserves fell to $37 billion in March, from $40 billion the previous month, according to the central bank.

The Egyptian pound lost 18 percent of its value against the dollar in March, while inflation hit 12.1 percent in March amid soaring food and oil prices due to the Ukraine war.

Under stress, Egypt is presently in talks with the International Monetary Fund for a brand new loan.

Since 2016, the IMF has authorized three loans totaling $20 billion for Egypt, wherein a 3rd of the 103-million populace lives in poverty.