Oil Tanker Transits Through the Suez Canal Drop 27% YOY -BIMCO
The number of oil tankers passing through the Suez Canal in October has declined sharply, down 27% for the month year-on-year amid persisting subdued demand for oil transport since the April crash in oil prices that fueled high demand for oil tankers, according to shipping association BIMCO.A total of 3,708 oil tankers passed through this key chokepoint for global shipping between January 1 and October 31, representing 76 less oil tanker transits (or a 2% decline) compared to the same period last year, BIMCO says.
Suez Canal Ship Transits Rise Amid COVID-19
Transits through the Suez Canal, the beating heart of the Egyptian economy, have stayed remarkably resilient to the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic if judging by total transits of the three commercial shipping sectors which are up 8% year-on-year. This is despite bleak economic growth prospects world-wide following the pandemic, and highlights that shipping remains the backbone of the global economy.It is often said that a picture says more than 1,000 words, but 6,166 ship transits in the Suez Canal can certainly also tell an interesting tale.
Suez Canal: Better Service to the Shipping Industry
According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, one of the world’s oil transit choke-points is the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal being another. However, the recently announced Suez Canal expansion plans are more likely to cater for containership transits, in strong competition with the expanding Panama Canal, rather than respond to the demand from oil tanker transits. On Tuesday, August 5, 2014, the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi unveiled the project, which is bound to be a multiyear, multibillion dollar one.
