Suez Canal

[Simpo Two]

Just looked at Marinetraffic and the Suez Canal is empty of shipping. Is that normal?

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:...

[FWIW]

Oh FFS .

Hope there’s nothing in this.

[Smiljan]

Is it normally busy in the early hours of the morning?

[UVB-76]

Everytime I've been through (twice in the last year) we wait at one of the entrances and start the passage in the morning before breakfast.
You book slots well in advance.

[Simpo Two]

It's working again now

I did note some small dredgers yesterday so maybe it was closed for dredging.

Seems to me that whoever controls the Suez Canal controls the world, especially in these 'global village' days. I'm surprised it hasn't been fought over more often.

[FatboyKim]

Simpo Two said:

It's working again now

I did note some small dredgers yesterday so maybe it was closed for dredging.

Seems to me that whoever controls the Suez Canal controls the world, especially in these 'global village' days. I'm surprised it hasn't been fought over more often.

Egyptian government currently, and they get rather fat from it as well. Think it was earlier this year they announced revenue of over US$6bn for the previous year.

[Smiljan]

Yep, a touch more than that even. Egypt really needs this revenue though

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220704-sue...

[Simpo Two]

When you think how much stuff goes through there every year, $6Bn seems quite modest. But I suppose they could just crank it up until just below the cost to go round Cape Horn. Or countries could make their own stuff instead - now there's an idea.