*Egypt’s Suez Canal, the key international waterway connecting the Atlantic Basin and Asia-Pacific markets, is benefiting from changing flows in international oil trade. The route bagged Egypt a record $5.73bn in revenue for 2018. And, with most key indicators up year-on-year for Q1 (see table), 2019 is shaping up to be a new record year.
*Oil is the largest single commodity to transit the canal (60.1mn tons for Q1, 21% of the 258mn tons total). And crude not surprisingly accounts for the largest portion of oil shipments in both a northbound and a southerly direction. But the biggest changes in trade flows in recent times have been for oil products. Northbound products shipments hit a record 1.43mn b/d for Q1 whilst southbound shipments of 1.58mn b/d were just shy of an all-time high set two years earlier. (CONTINUED - 1048 WORDS)
