In the past financial year, the Suez Canal achieved a record turnover of 7 billion dollars. The increase in sales followed increases in tariffs for the use of the important Egyptian waterway. This was reported by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA).

The old sales record was $5.8 billion and dated from last year. The Suez Canal was in the news at the time when the container ship Ever Given ran aground and blocked the canal. The blockage disrupted global shipping for a while. Despite this, record revenues were recorded due to strong demand for goods. It came from consumers who were in lockdown during the pandemic.

The canal, the shortest shipping route between Asia and Europe, carried about 1.3 billion tons of cargo between July 2021 and June 2022, said Osama Rabie, the chief of the SCA. The canal, which connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, accounts for about 10 percent of global maritime trade.

The SCA has twice increased its rates for ships, including large fuel tankers, in the past fiscal year. In April, the waterway posted its highest-ever monthly turnover of $629 million, despite the rise in oil prices following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The Suez Canal is also an important source of foreign exchange for Egypt, which has suffered from high inflation and a depreciation of its currency as a result of the war in Ukraine. Due to rising commodity prices, Egyptian inflation rose to over 15 percent in June. That is the highest level in three years.

In late March, Egypt’s central bank allowed the Egyptian pound to depreciate against the dollar, causing the currency to lose about 18 percent of its value overnight. To mitigate the economic impact, the government has applied for a new loan from the International Monetary Fund, raising billions of dollars in investment from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.