Egypt's Suez Canal reported a two percent increase in its revenues during the first four months of this year, recording $1.907 billion, the canal's authority chairman Osama Rabie told Ahram Online on Monday. According to an official statement, Rabie said the strategic canal's revenues rose in the first third of the year from $1.869 billion in the corresponding period in 2019. He said 1,731 vessels passed through the waterway in both directions in April 2020, up from 1,580 in the same period last year. Overall net tonnage rose 3.6 percent last April, reaching 101.8 million tonnes, up from 98.3 million tonnes in April 2019. He said maritime traffic during the first four months of 2020 grew 8.7 percent, with 6,563 vessels crossing, up from 6,038 ships in the corresponding period last year. Transit tonnage at the canal jumped 7.3 percent in the first third of the year, reporting 408.6 million tonnes, up from 380.9 million tonnes in the same period in 2019. Egypt has stressed in the past months that traffic through its vital shipping route has not been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and shipping is proceeding at normal rates. The canal, which is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia, is one of Egypt's main sources of foreign currency.
