The Suez Canal recorded record annual revenues of $6.3 billion in 2021, up 12.8% from 2020, despite the blockade that in March caused a crisis at that sea crossing.

Admiral Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Management Authority, through a statement, which is quoted by some news sites, advanced that the artificial canal has achieved "the highest annual revenue in its history" and the transit of the "highest annual net tonnage, at 1,270 million tons. in 2021."

In 2021, the canal earned $6.3 billion in revenues, up from $5.6 billion the previous year, reads the statement, according to which 20,694 ships passed through the canal last year in both directions, compared to 18,830 in 2020.

In total, these ships carried about 1,270 million tons, 100 million more than in 2020, the statement released this Sunday adds.

Osama Rabie pointed out that the percentage of world trade volume that passed through the Suez Canal, one of the largest in the world, reached about 8.5% by 2021.

This annual balance sheet, "unprecedented" in the canal's history, comes in a year when this waterway experienced one of its most serious crises, when the container ship 'Ever Given' ran aground, blocking the Suez Canal for six days and interrupting part of the world's trade, which caused between 72 and 90 million dollars in losses, according to official data.

During the blockade of the huge container ship, more than 400 ships were blocked both north and south of the canal, while others were forced to take an alternative route through the southern tip of Africa.

Situated between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, about 10% of the world's maritime trade passes through the Suez Canal, which is a valuable source of foreign exchange for Egypt.