Fewer cargo ships sailing on Suez Canal

The world-famous Suez Canal, whose construction was completed in 1869, has all along been one of Egypt’s largest foreign exchange earners. The imposing canal has always had a curious, subtle fascination. Its dazzling brilliance, nevertheless, has somewhat dimmed because of an impact brought to Egypt by the global finance crisis.My job on the canal is the easiest and most relaxed this year, but it is no happy thing at all, said Sayyid, a manager to supervise the operation of ferries at the canal’s Ismailyah section for eight full years.

Standing on the bank of the Suez Canal, I seemed to see a vivid, magnificent show of ships coming from all nations around the world, said Halim, a canal water level surveyor for nearly six years. But there has been no scene of “a thousand sails passing by” as a popular classic Chinese saying vividly depicts since the later half of 2008.According to Abd El Fatah Ahmed Aly, an administration sector director of the Suez Canal, the revenue of the canal merely came to 4.74 billion U.S. dollars, down by 7.2 percent over the preceding fiscal year.

In March 2009, only 1,439 cargo ships used the canal, a decrease of 260 ships year-on-year; and the navigation tolls in the month amounted only to 328 million dollars, a drop of 21 percent over the same period a year ago.Fatah attributed the sluggish shipping industry chiefly to the sliding world trade amid global financial crisis. The Egyptian economic mix, he acknowledged, is composed mainly of the export-oriented economy and, as the back-end part of the “trade-ships-canal-ports” industry chain amid the current financial crisis, it shows symptoms of certain delays from the onslaught of the crisis.Another “chief culprit” is the Somali piracy that has negatively affected the revenue for the Suez Canal. Pirates attacked more than 100 ships off the Somali coast over the last year, reaping an estimated 1 million US dollars in ransom for each hijacking, and about 40 ships carrying 600 crew members were hijacked in the first 11 months of 2008, according to analysts and country experts.

Noting that every captain very much hopes to make shipping safe and sound, Fatah said that many cargo vessels are most likely to sail to Europe and elsewhere around the Cape of Good Hope, so as to avert possible encounters with pirates. A large number of shipping companies opt to follow this route despite a much longer distance and much higher costs involved, he added.The Suez Canal offers a splendid view of the sea, and it is as elegant as the nearby pyramid, and its beautiful scene is as legendary as the enchanting, magnificent view of the Ancient Nile River.

The Suez Canal is often alive with a glittering, sun-shading awning scene at its Ismailyah section. Today, tourism has negatively affected or decreased drastically nevertheless with a growing impact from the “frigid” financial crisis.In the second quarter of 2009, Egypt’s pub sector income was only 2.46 billion dollars, down 10 percent year-on-year, as the Egyptian hotel business quarterly statistics have indicated. Some luxurious restaurants and hotels in the city of Ismailyah have even reduced their employment.

Upon the eruption of financial crisis, the Egyptian government approved a stimulus package of 15 billion Egyptian ponds (2.7 billion US dollars) for the current fiscal year. Egypt dedicated additional 30 billion Egyptian pounds (5.4 billion dollars) to further stimulate economy in the first half of 2009. Moreover, the Egyptian government has taken viable measures to help the tourism industry to recover by reducing tourism costs and attracting more tourists.

Source: People’s Daily Online