The Suez Canal’s operating authority announced on Thursday that the waterway has experienced a 23 percent drop in revenue for the 2023–2024 fiscal year.
Egyptian officials attributed the decrease in maritime traffic to ongoing actions by Tehran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen, who are targeting foreign shipping in solidarity with Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Osama Rabie, the head of the Suez Canal Authority, said that income from usage fees fell to $7.2 billion from $9.4 billion the previous year.
Rabie also identified a 500-million-ton reduction in the amount of cargo that transited the canal during the same time period.
The vital commercial passageway that connects the Mediterranean and Red Sea supports 12 percent of the world’s ocean trade and is a significant source of foreign currency for the government in Cairo.
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