CAIRO: Suez Canal revenues reached $471.4 million in June 2008, slightly down from $479.4 million in May, according to the Cabinet's Information Portal. The year-on-year growth in revenues jumped to 21.2 percent, however, in June, up from 13.9 percent in May. Traffic of oil tankers rebounded, registering year-on-year growth of 8 percent, compared to 4.6 percent in May. The total number of vessels reached 1,819 in June 2008, up from 1,657 in June 2007. Total tonnage also increased, reaching 76.3 million tons, up 14 percent from June 2007, on the back of stronger growth in tonnage of non-oil vessels, which jumped to 17.8 percent in June from 12.8 percent in May. In its daily market report, Beltone Financial said, "Traffic and tonnage have been rising since 2004-2005, with the rise in international trade, especially with Asian countries, and an increase in global energy trade. Monthly revenues had jumped starting April 2008 when the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) raised its transit fees by 7.1 percent on average, according to vessel and cargo type, said Beltone. Revenues registered $449 million in April 2008 compared to $417 million in March. The SCA has been raising transit fees annually since the beginning of the decade after fixing fees for a significantly long period of time, it added. The Suez Canal is currently being expanded, with the number of branching waterways and its depth increased to reach 72 feet, ultimately, to allow the passage of larger vessels. Larger vessels previously had to take the alternate route around the African continent. Revenues from the Suez Canal, Egypt's third largest foreign exchange earner, rose from $3.5 billion in fiscal year 2005/2006 to $5.1 billion in fiscal year 2007/2008, slightly beating our expectation of $5 billion. "We expect revenues will rise to $5.8 billion in fiscal year 2008/2009, added Beltone.
