Suez Canal traffic data showed that 320 ships transited the canal, with a total load of 18.22m tonnes, from 22 to 29 September.
It was decided that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will activate its decision to include the Chinese yuan in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) unit in October. SDR is the calculation unit used by the canal to calculate the fees collected from transiting ships.
The Suez Canal Authority uses SDR in order to create balance between the exchange rate changes as well as to be aware of any fluctuations in any global currency that may affect the stability of the canal’s revenues.
The SDR unit equals $1.3598 according to exchange rates on 30 September, which is the last date the SDR was calculated.
An average of 45.71 ships transited the canal per day during the period from 22 to 29 September, with an average load of 2.602m tonnes per day. The average load per ship was about 56,940 tonnes during that period.
Compared to July 2015, before the inauguration of the New Suez Canal, the average daily number of transiting vessels totaled 47 vessels, with an average load of 2.758m tonnes per day.
The major container ship Al-Dahna from Malta transited the canal carrying 200,607 tonnes en route from Malaysia to the United Kingdom.
A total of 158 vessels transited the canal through the northern entrance of Port Said—a daily average of 22.57 vessels, and a total load of 8.73m tonnes, recording a daily average of 1.25m tonnes.
Meanwhile, 160 ships transited the canal coming from the south at the Suez entrance, with a daily average of 22.86 vessels, and a total load of 9.49m tonnes, recording a daily average of 1.36m tonnes.
The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced last week that the canal’s revenues declined over the fiscal year (FY) of 2015/2016 to $5.1bn—a 4.5% decrease from FY 2014/2015, in which revenues amounted to $5.4bn.
The cargo load is the main measure of shipping traffic in the Suez Canal and the calculated transit fees.
The following table shows traffic through the Suez Canal from 23 to 29 September 2016:
