Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi announced on Monday that revenue from the Suez Canal, one of the country's main foreign currency earners, had “decreased by 40 to 50%” since the beginning of the year following attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels.
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Since November, the Houthis have claimed to attack ships linked to Israel or its supporters in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been bombed relentlessly since Hamas's unprecedented deadly October 7 attack on Israeli soil.
The Houthi attacks have led many shipping companies to decide in 2024 to bypass Africa in the long term and end passages through the Red Sea and Suez Canal, through which 12% to 15% of world traffic normally passes, according to the EU.
“You see what is happening on our borders (…) with Gaza, you see the Suez Canal, which brought Egypt almost $10 billion a year, (those revenues) have fallen by 40 to 50% and Egypt still has to pay the companies .” and partners,” Sissi said at a conference with oil companies.
The massive structure, inaugurated in 1869, earned Egypt about $8.6 billion in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, a windfall in a country where importers and money changers are now struggling to find dollars.
In the country going through the worst economic crisis in its history, revenue from the canal is being closely monitored, as are tourism revenues and remittances from Egyptian workers abroad.
According to the United Nations, trade volumes through the Suez Canal have fallen by 42% in the past two months as they worry about the impact on overall global trade.
And the weekly number of container ship transits fell 67% year-on-year. The decline in tanker transport is 18%, that of bulk carriers (grain, coal, etc.) is 6% and gas transport is at a standstill.