"The Red Sea is turning into the Dead Sea. Russia's "Kommersant" reported on the 22nd with this title that the United States and the United Kingdom said that Yemen's Houthi attacks on ships in the Red Sea have increased. After the United States and Britain implemented the "Prosperity Guardian" operation, the European Union recently launched the "Shield" escort operation. These measures have not yet been able to ensure the safety of this sea route, and the volume of cargo traffic in the Red Sea has been drastically reduced. The United States, the United Kingdom, and EU countries are embroiled in a potentially protracted conflict, and the economic and political costs for those countries that seek to silence the Houthis are mounting.
Egypt's economy is facing serious hurdles as revenues from the Suez Canal, the country's most strategic asset, have fallen by nearly half, according to Dao 21**.
Egypt's Red Sea crisis, which has severely cut Egypt's revenues from ships passing through the canal, is the latest challenge facing Egypt's economy, Egypt said. Between January 1 and 11 this year, the number of ships passing through the Suez Canal fell by 30 percent and revenues by 40 percent, according to Rabieh, director of the Suez Canal Authority.
According to Maritime Lloyd's Register, the number of ships passing through the Suez Canal fell to 205 in the week to 18 February, nearly 60% below the average. Weekly toll revenues from the Suez Canal have fallen 40 percent since the end of November, to $28 million, according to the latest data from shipping service provider Veson Nautical.
Sisi said that in the past, the Suez Canal brought nearly $10 billion a year to Egypt, which has so far decreased by 40 to 50 percent, and that Egypt must continue to pay businesses and partners.
Jones, senior content analyst at Veson Nautical, believes that from Egypt's perspective, traffic through the Suez Canal will still decrease in the foreseeable future, so the decline in toll revenues is likely to continue. The International Monetary Organization's World Economic Outlook (WEO) report released on January 30 revised its forecast for Egypt's economic growth in fiscal year 2023 to 2024 from the original growth of 36% to 3%, and the growth forecast for fiscal year 2024 2025 has also been lowered from 5% to 47%。
Sadeq, a professor of political sociology at the Egyptian-Japanese University of Science and Technology in Alexandria, said Egypt was not the only country affected by the decline in ships in the Red Sea. "If the conflict continues, the best chains around the world will be affected, especially since many of the cargo ships passing through the canal are oil and gas ships bound for Europe, which will cause great losses to the European economy," he said. ”