CAIRO, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The revenues of Egypt's Suez Canal reached 5.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Osama Rabie said on Saturday.
In a statement, Rabie said the Suez Canal revenues in 2018 hit 5.7 billion U.S. dollars, noting that they climbed to 5.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2019, marking 1.3 percent increase.
Rabie announced that the Suez Canal transit tolls for all types of vessels will remain unchanged in 2020, excluding only dry bulk vessels and liquefied petroleum gas carriers, as the transit tolls for both categories will increase by 5 percent.
The Suez Canal accommodated 18,880 ships with a net tonnage of 1.2 billion tons during 2019, the SCA chairman said.
The Suez Canal is a major lifeline for global seaborne trade since it allows ships to travel between Europe and South Asia without navigating around Africa, thereby reducing the sea voyage distance between Europe and India by about 7,000 km.
Some 12 percent of the world trade volume passes through the man-made canal, which is a major source of hard currency in Egypt.
