Gov’t denies rumors in video claiming lack of New Suez Canal’s feasibility

CAIRO – 10 August 2021: The media center at the Egyptian cabinet denied baseless information circulated in a video claiming that the new Suez Canal has not achieved any increases in the canal’s revenues.

The rumors circulated coincides with the sixth anniversary of the inauguration of the New Suez Canal.

The Suez Canal authority stressed that the claims of the lack of feasibility of the new Suez Canal in achieving any increases in the channel’s revenues are false, adding that the channel achieved the highest annual revenue in its history in 2020/2021, by $5.84 billion, despite the impact of the international trade movement by the Corona crisis if compared to $5.72 billion in 2019/2020.

The authority added that the canal’s revenues increased by 8.6 percent, to reach $3 billion in the first half of 2021, compared to $2.76 billion in the first half of 2020, as the new canal project contributed to an increase in demand for the use of the canal as a major global navigation passage, by increasing the canal’s carrying capacity to 97 ships/day, compared to 77 ships/day before the opening of the new canal, and allowing giant ships to cross up to a draft of 66 feet in both directions.

In a related context, the canal achieved a number of standard indicators, which confirm the extent of its importance to the global trade movement and its overcoming of the repercussions of the Corona crisis, as the number of passing ships increased by 2.3 percent, to record 9,763 ships in the first half of 2021, compared to 9,546 ships in the first half of 2020, while the net tonnage increased by 3.8 percent to 610.1 million tons in the first half of 2021, compared to 587.7 million tons in the same half of 2020.