The number of ships transiting the Suez Canal has fallen to 544 so far (Reuters)

The canal's revenue in dollars has fallen 40% since the start of the year compared to 2023, said Suez Canal Authority chief Osama Rabie after Houthi attacks in Yemen on ships bound for Israel diverted their sailing away from the corridor.

Rabie told a late television program that ship traffic fell 30 percent from Jan. 11 to Jan. <> year-on-year.

The number of ships transiting the Suez Canal has dropped to 544 so far this year, up from 777 in the same period last year, Reuters reported.

The Suez Canal is a major source of foreign currency, which Egypt suffers from a shortage of, and authorities have been struggling for years to boost its revenues, including by widening the canal in 2015. Further expansion is under way.

The Houthi group has been attacking Israeli merchant ships or ties to Israel in the Red Sea for weeks to protest Israel's aggression on Gaza.

Many commercial shipping companies are diverting their ships to other routes. Last month, the United States announced the launch of a new international mission to patrol the Red Sea to deter attacks.

Rabie stated that only ships having to complete their voyages quickly diverted to the Cape of Good Hope, and that other ships were waiting for the situation to stabilize.

According to IMF data, the movement of goods through the Suez Canal declined last week by 35% compared to the same period in 2023.

During the same period, the Fund monitored a 67.5% increase in the movement of goods through the Cape of Good Hope route in Africa.

Earlier, an Egyptian shipping source said that "changing some lines is a temporary crisis whose impact will appear more often as the duration lasts."

The American University in Cairo's Alternative Policy Solutions project also published in a report that "the Egyptian economy is expected to be one of the most affected by the slowdown in maritime traffic in the Bab al-Mandab.

Suez Canal revenues are one of Egypt's most prominent sources of foreign exchange. In the fiscal year 2022-2023, the channel achieved financial revenues of $ 9.4 billion, the highest annual revenue recorded, and an increase of about 35% over the previous year, according to what the authority announced last June.

Source: Agencies