CAIRO: Suez Canal revenues in December reached $389.7 million, seeing an increase of 24.2 million dollars compared to the revenues of November, a rise of 6.6 percent. However, last month's revenues declined by $1.1 million dollars compared to December 2008. The Suez Canal Authority is hopeful that the strong showing in December is a sign that the worst is over, after reporting months of losses. An official source at the Suez Canal Authority said that the total number of ships that crossed the canal in December was 1,452 ships with tonnage amounting to 67.5 million tons, up 30 ships compared to November and 7 million tons more of cargo, while the number of vessels passing through the canal declined by 108 ships, compared to the same month in 2008. The source said that the Canal's revenues in 2009 amounted to $4.29 billion, a decline of $1.09 billion, down 20% from revenues of 2008, when the canal achieved an amount of $5.381 billion in 2008. The total number of vessels passing were 17,228 ships, with loads of about 734.4 million tons, showing a decline in the number of ships by 4,187 ships and in tonnage by 176.4 million tons compared to 2008. The source said that the shipping of oil has seen a rise of 45 vessels from last November, where 308 oil ships crossed in December 2009, an increase of 28 ships from the same month in 2008. The total number of oil tankers in the past year reached 3,479 vessels compared to 3,594 vessels in 2008, a decline of 115 vessels. The officer from the Suez Canal Authority attributed this decline in revenues of 2009 to the continuing global financial crisis that started to leave an impact on the proceeds of the Suez Canal since the end of the year 2007. He added that the impact of piracy, which takes place at the African coast, on revenues was limited and can not be considered a factor in the apparent decline. He said the decline did not cause great concern to the administration of the canal, which expected this decline. He said that the Canal revenues witnessed remarkable stability since last April, where the size of shrinking began to retreat. He predicted that in the Suez Canal revenues would continue to improve during this year. The Suez Canal revenues have been in decline since the end of last year's due to declines in world trade as a result the global financial crisis and a number of international navigation lines avoided passing through the Suez Canal, because of piracy in the Horn of Africa. BM
