In a statement, Rabie said 2,155 ships transited the canal from both ways in January 2023, compared to 1,774 ships in January 2022, recording a 21.5 percent increase.

Navigation statistics in the canal in January recorded the highest monthly transit rate of oil tankers with the passage of 677 tankers.

Statistics showed a rise in the monthly net tonnage crossing the canal to record 123.5 million tons against 106.2 million tons in January last year.

The number of bulk ships that transited the waterway increased by 17.1 percent, while car carrier ships rose by 16.3 percent, manifesting the success of the new marketing and pricing policies adopted by the authority.

He attributed these unprecedented indicators to the navigation strategy adopted by the canal authority over the past few years that helped to maintain the global ranking of the canal as the shortest, fastest, and safest navigational route in the world.

The SCA has increased transit fees by 10-15 percent starting January 2023 to deal with the impact of the current global inflation.

In 2022, the Suez Canal revenues hit a record of $8 billion, up from $6.3 billion in 2021.