Egypt’s president extends tenure of Osama Rabie as chairman of Suez Canal Authority

CAIRO – 12 August 2022: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has extended the tenure of Osama Rabie as chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) for another year as of 12 August, the Official Gazette has reported.

Sisi has also issued Decree No. 356 of 2022 appointing Walid Gamal El-Din as chairman of the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone for a year as of August 12, 2022.

The decree was announced in a statement released by the Suez Canal Economic Zone on Friday.

Gamal El-Din served as CEO of the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone since January 2020 before being selected as deputy chairman of the authority for investment and promotion affairs in May 2022.

Unprecedented boom

Suez Canal revenues recorded about LE 12.3 billion during June 2022, up from LE 12 billion in May 2021, marking an increase of LE 300 million, according to the data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

CAPMAS stated that the revenues have risen to a new record level since the beginning of the current year 2022, despite the consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Since the beginning of this year, the revenues of the Suez Canal have witnessed successive increases, as revenues recorded about LE 11.6 billion in April, compared to LE 8.7 billion in the corresponding month in 2021, with an increase of LE 2.9 billion.

The Suez Canal achieved a boom during the fiscal year 2021/2022, where the canal’s revenues increased by 20.7 percent to record about $7 billion, compared to about $5.8 billion in 2020/2021.

The number of ships transiting the Suez Canal during 2021/22 also witnessed an increase of 15.7 percent, recording about 22,000 ships, compared to 19,000 ships in 2020/2021.

The net tonnage transiting the canal also witnessed an increase by 10.9 percent to reach 1.32 billion tons in 2021/2022, compared to 1.19 billion tons in 2020/2021.

MENA contributed to the reporting.