Cairo - Mubasher: Egypt's Suez Canal managed to achieve record results during fiscal year (FY) 2020/2021 despite the repercussions of the pandemic.

According to a report published by the Cabinet's Media Center on Wednesday, the canal's net tonnage surged by 51.1% to 1.191 million tonnes in FY20/21, compared to 788 million tonnes in FY09/10.

The New Suez Canal has boosted the capacity of the canal to 97 vessels per day, compared to 77 and deepened the permissible draft to 66 feet in the two directions. 

The canal's revenues reached an all-time high of $5.84 billion in the last fiscal year, compared to $5.72 billion in FY19/20, $5.75 billion in FY18/19, $5.61billion in FY17/18, $5 billion in FY16/17, $5.13 billion in FY15/16, $5.37 billion in FY14/15, $5.31 billion in FY13/14, $5.03 billion in FY12/13, $5.23 billion in FY11/12, $5.05 billion in FY10/11, and $4.54 billion in FY09/10.

In the first half (H1) of 2021, the number of vessels passing through the waterway rose by 2.3% to 9,762, compared to 9,546 in H1-20.

The net tonnage increased by 3.8% to 610.1 million tonnes in the January-June period from 587.7 million in the year-ago period, while revenues grew by 8.7% to $3 billion in H1-21 from $2.76 billion in H1-20.

April 2021 witnessed the highest ever monthly revenue of the canal at $553.6 million, while the highest daily net tonnage was recorded on 2 August 2019 with a total volume of 5,619 tonnes. 

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the canal to generate $6.6 billion in revenue in FY21/22, $6.9 billion in FY22/23, $7.3 billion in FY23/24, and $7.6 billion in FY24/25.