Egypt Cashing in on Suez Canal

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Egypt Suez Canal revenues drop 29 pct yr-on-yr in May

CAIRO, June 8 (Reuters) - Egypt's Suez Canal revenues dropped 29 percent to $342.4 million in May, compared to $479.4 million in the same month last year, a Suez Canal Authority official said on Monday.

Economists are eyeing Suez Canal revenues for effects from piracy off Somalia's coast and recession in major economies, which has reduced the volume of trade between Asia and Europe.

Egypt's central bank governor said last month that April receipts from tourism and the Suez Canal provided a "glimmer of hope" for the country's economy.

Suez revenue in April fell 22.7 percent to $346.9 million.

The canal is an important source of foreign currency for Egypt, along with tourism, oil and gas exports and remittances from Egyptians living abroad.

Analyst Reham El Desoki from Beltone Financial said she expected full year canal revenues to decline 9.6 percent to $4.7 billion, from $5.2 billion in 2007/08.

The Suez official said the number of vessels using the waterway was 1,468 in May, down from 1,482 in April.

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Egypt Suez Canal revenues drop 26 pct yr-on-yr in June

ISMAILIA, Egypt, July 9 (Reuters) - Egypt's Suez Canal revenues dipped 26 percent to $348.2 million in June, compared to $471.4 million in the same month last year, a Suez Canal Authority official said on Thursday.

The figure was the highest monthly receipts from the canal this year.

The canal is one of Egypt's main foreign currency earners, along with tourism, oil and gas exports and remittances from Egyptians living abroad.

The official said the number of vessels using the waterway was 1,401 in June, down from 1,819 in June 2008.

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Egypt holds 26 accused of plotting to hit Suez ships

CAIRO, July 9 (Reuters) - Egypt has arrested 26 people suspected of links to al Qaeda accused of plotting to attack oil pipelines and foreign ships in the Suez Canal, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.

The detainees, 25 Egyptians and a Palestinian, subscribed to militant Islamist ideology and were in direct contact through the Internet with "terrorist elements and organisations abroad", a ministry statement said.

Egypt is highly sensitive to any perceived security threats after being hit by sporadic bombings and other attacks in recent years usually targeting the vital tourist industry. The last involved a bomb that killed a tourist in Cairo in February.

The Suez Canal is also a major source of revenue for Egypt as well as a crucial international trade route.

"Interior Ministry security forces were able to monitor the activities of a terrorist cell," the statement said, adding that they were arrested and the case sent to the prosecutor.

It said the group aimed to attack vital targets in Egypt and was awaiting orders from an al Qaeda militant leader abroad.

"Among the targets studied for terrorist attacks were foreign ships on the Suez Canal and oil pipelines," the Interior Ministry said, referring to the strategic waterway that links the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

The group included engineers and technicians able to produce explosives using ordnance discarded during past wars and scavenged from Egypt's deserts, the ministry said.

It said the group subscribed to a jihadist ideology similar to that of Takfir and Higra, a name adopted by several militant groups in the Arab world.

An Egyptian group of that name killed a cabinet minister in 1977, but its leader was hanged and members jailed.

The detainees whose arrest was announced on Thursday were funded by donations from abroad but had also tried to rob a gold store and pharmacy to raise cash, the ministry said.

They are suspected of involvement in a 2008 failed robbery of a Cairo gold shop in which a Christian shop owner and four employees were killed but nothing was stolen, security sources said.

The ministry said the detainees were also suspected of being in contact with the Palestinian Army of Islam, a group accused of involvement in a bomb attack in a popular Cairo tourist area that killed a French teenager in February.

That bomb was the first fatal attack on tourists in Egypt since bombs killed at least 23 people at an Egyptian resort in the Sinai peninsula in 2006.

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Suez Canal revenues set to decline as transits fall
26 June 2009
Lloyd's List

SUEZ Canal revenue is projected to decline by around 14% to about $4.7bn this year compared with $5.4bn in 2008, according to local reports quoting a Suez Canal Authority official, writes David Osler.

But figures from Lloyd’s Marine Intelligence Unit reveal that the number of transits this year has clocked up an even sharper fall, meaning that the prognosis appears to be on the optimistic side.

Transits of commercial vessels from January to May 2009 — that is, excluding warships, yachts and fishing vessels — totalled 6,820. That compares with 8,502 in the equivalent period last year, a reduction just a shade under 25%.

“It’s too early to run figures for June, but the trend at the moment looks as though they will also be lower than last year,” said Lloyd’s MIU consultant Claire Wright.

Factors involved are likely to include the general decline in world trade and moves by some operators to reroute round the Cape of Good Hope, both to save on canal dues and to avoid the piracy-prone Gulf of Aden.

Revenue from the canal, a major hard currency earner for Egypt, plunged 22.7% in April this year compared with the corresponding period last year, according to the most recent official statistics available in English.

However, at $448.9m, monthly revenue for the period was up 5.8% in March.

The figures state that 1,482 vessels used the canal in April, down 13.4% from 1,712 vessels in April last year, but nevertheless a 3% gain on the 1,439 tally seen in March.

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Lines revert to Suez transits as bunker costs escalate
18 June 2009
Lloyd's List

MEDITERRANEAN Shipping Co’s decision to stop sending ships around the Cape of Good Hope and instead revert to Suez Canal transits has been followed by most other lines that had been trying to avoid expensive transit fees.

Taking the longer route from Europe to Asia made sense when fuel costs were relatively low, but the recent increase in oil prices has forced lines to redo their sums.

Bunker prices have more than doubled to around $400 per tonne since the start of the year, leaving those lines that are charging all-in rates for cargo being shipped from Asia to Europe with almost nothing left to cover the ocean transport element.

Lines are now trying to collect bunker adjustment factors again on their Asia-Europe services as they also press for general rate increases from the start of next month and, in some cases, prepare to bring in a peak season surcharge.

An analysis of bafs conducted by Alphaliner show that those lines that have published the levy now plan to charge between $286 and $419 per teu next month.

Recently rescued Chilean line CSAV is targeting the highest amount, having lifted its baf from $273 per teu in January, according to Alphaliner. NYK is the cheapest, after raising its baf from $187 to $286 between January and July.

Maersk’s bunker levy has climbed from $230 to $330, while Cosco has brought in what it calls an emergency surcharge of $56 per teu for Asia to north European shipments, and $73 for Mediterranean destinations.

On average, bafs have risen from $258 to $303 over the first half of the year, and will go up to a mean of $368 in July.

Fuel costs have forced lines to reconsider the much longer route via southern Africa, representing an additional 3,400 nautical miles, which was viable when bunkers were much cheaper, with the extra fuel burned costing less than the canal transit fees of around $600,000 for a large containership.

According to Alphaliner, which based its calculations on 9,500 teu ships, carriers could only achieve savings when fuel prices were less than $350 a tonne.

CI-online and Alphaliner report that Maersk has switched two of its Asia-Europe loops back to the Suez Canal, as has CMA CGM, which was one of the first to divert its ships around Africa. As Lloyd’s List reported earlier, Mediterranean Shipping Co dropped the longer route a few weeks ago.

The Grand Alliance is still sending its EU3 string via the Cape of Good Hope.

Lines had hoped that their boycott of the Suez Canal would persuade the authority to cut fees, while the longer voyage also absorbed capacity, since more ships were needed in each loop to maintain weekly calls.

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Israeli warships make rare Suez crossing: port source

Suez, Egypt (AFP)--14Jul2009/643 am EDT/1043 GMT

Two Israeli navy ships made a rare crossing of Egypt's Suez Canal Tuesday, headed from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, a port source told AFP.

One of the ships, the Hanit, already crossed the canal both ways June, in what the source said was the first case of a large Israeli warship using the strategic waterway, although this was not possible to confirm officially.

After fighting several wars since Israel's foundation in 1948, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979.

The other ship to cross Tuesday, the Eilat, was named after a destroyer sunk by Egypt with the loss of 47 lives shortly after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, the source said.

It is thought that Israeli navy vessels did not previously use the canal for intelligence reasons, as they might be equipped with nuclear warheads that could be visible to the Egyptian authorities.

Israel is considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear power.

Israel's Yediot Aharonot daily reported earlier this month that an Israeli submarine also used the Suez Canal for the first time in June, to reach military exercises in the Red Sea.

It said the Dolphin submarine's crossing, escorted by Egyptian navy vessels, was intended as a message to arch-foe Iran.

Previously, Israeli submarines took weeks to round the whole of Africa to get to the Red Sea, with the paper saying "Egypt and Israel wanted to show their coordination in the face of Iran pursuing its nuclear programme."

Israel suspects Iran of trying to build atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran has vehemently denied.

The Jewish state see the Islamic republic as its top enemy following repeated assertions by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel is doomed to be "wiped off the map."

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Suez Canal offers 30% discount to boost traffic
29 July 2009
Lloyd's List

THE Suez Canal is offering shipowners discounts of up to 30% in order to drive more traffic through the canal, writes Martyn Wingrove.

A local Egyptian source with knowledge of the canal told Lloyd’s List that the authority was giving out discounts of 25%-30% to some shipowners in response to a decline in the number of vessels going through the waterway.

The move follow news that the canal is giving discounts to Qatari liquefied natural gas shipments transiting the waterway.

Reports indicated that discounts of up to 50% were being handed out to Qatar LNG shipping.

Suez Canal Authority chairman Ahmed Fadel told local press that the discounts were incentives aimed at increasing shipment volumes transiting the waterway. The source added that the discounts could be a result of political discussions between Qatar and Egypt.

Qatar is stepping up LNG shipments through the Suez Canal as it increases gas deliveries to the US and Europe.

A major part of this business involves the world’s largest LNG carriers — the Q-Max and Q-Flex ships owned by state-run Nakilat — taking Qatari gas to a new terminal in Milford Haven, in the UK.

Qatar LNG owner Nakilat will need to use the Suez Canal for at least another 25 years as it is contracted to deliver gas to European terminals from its production plants in Qatar.

No one from Nakilat was available for comment when contacted by Lloyd’s List.

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Egypt Suez Canal revenues down 22 pct in July

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Egypt's revenues from the Suez Canal fell 22 percent to $382.9 million in July compared to the same month last year, a Suez Canal Authority official said on Friday.

The figure is the highest for monthly receipts from the canal so far this year. The previous high for 2009 was June's figure of $348.2 million.

The canal is one of Egypt's main foreign currency earners, along with tourism, oil and gas exports and remittances from Egyptians living abroad.

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Egypt moves stricken tanker from Suez Canal entrance

CAIRO, Sept 2 (Reuters) - Egypt has towed a stricken Panamanian oil tanker away from the southern entrance to the Suez Canal after it almost sank, the official news agency MENA reported on Wednesday.

MENA had earlier said the ship, identified as Elli, had sunk on Friday but had not disrupted normal shipping through the canal, a major international trade route.

The agency said on Wednesday the ship had been on the verge of sinking before it was saved by an Egyptian team.

Ahmed Fadel, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, said the stricken ship did not pollute the area and was towed away from other ship moorings, MENA said.

The ship had travelled from Yemen for repairs in Suez port, MENA had said.

Egypt has reported declining revenue from the canal, one of its main foreign currency earners, in recent months as the global slowdown cuts trade volumes between Asia and Europe.

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Egypt's Suez Canal revenue dips 26 pct in August

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Egypt's revenue from the Suez Canal fell 26 percent to $371.8 million in August compared to the same month last year, a Suez Canal Authority official said on Wednesday.

The figure was the first monthly drop in revenue since May and follows a 2009 high of $382.9 million hit in July. Revenue was $504.5 million in August 2008. The Authority's Mohamed Amara said 1,453 vessels passed through the waterway in the month, compared to 1,521 in July and 1,993 a year earlier.

August 2008 was that year's biggest earning month for the canal, which connects the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea, with global trade flows slowing since then ahead of a slight uptick starting in April this year.

The canal is one of Egypt's main foreign currency earners, along with tourism, oil and gas exports and remittances from Egyptians living abroad.

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Suez Canal revenue continues to fall.
9 December 2009
Lloyd's List

SUEZ Canal revenue last month fell 13% to $365.5m, down from $419.8m in the same month of 2008, an Egyptian state website has reported. Oil traffic is said to have declined in what is traditionally a slow month for the waterway, writes David Osler.

Analysts point out that canal revenue — a vital source of foreign currency in Egypt — has now fallen year on year every month since December last year, due to the downturn in world trade and the piracy crisis in the Gulf of Aden.

Revenue in the 12 months to November totalled $4.3bn, compared with $5.4bn in the 12 months to November 2008.

Revenue sank to $301.8m in February this year, marking a three-year low, but has generally registered monthly gains since then. Revenue was $399m in October, which may indicate that the corner has been turned.

Investment bank Beltone Financial said in a research note: “Suez Canal revenues and traffic have been recovering since February 2009 as non-oil traffic and tonnage rose with the gradual rebound in global trade, and oil prices rose, rendering alternative routes more expensive.

“We continue to expect revenues to total $5bn in fiscal year 2009-2010, up from $4.7bn in fiscal year 2008-2009.”

However, the number of vessels moving through the waterway, which connects the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, dipped to 1,418 in November, down from 1,770 a year ago.

This might simply reflect a seasonal trend, Beltone added.

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Suez Canal revenue down 0.5 percent in December
10 January 2010

CAIRO, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Revenue from Egypt's Suez Canal fell 0.5 percent to $390 million in December, for the smallest year-on-year fall since November 2008 when faltering global trade began to hit shipping traffic.

Some 1,452 vessels passed through the canal in December, up from 1,418 in November but down from 1,560 in December 2008, the Egyptian cabinet's information website said on Sunday.

"It shows that trade volumes and revenues have stabilised since the first half of the year, but it will be some time before revenues and volumes approach levels seen in early 2008," EFG-Hermes economist Simon Kitchen said on Sunday.

He had forecast December revenue of $380 million.

Revenue in November was $365.5 million. The canal is a vital source of foreign currency in Egypt, along with tourism, oil and gas exports and remittances from Egyptians living abroad.

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Suez Canal holds fees, sees revenue inching up

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The Suez Canal Authority chairman confirmed on Tuesday transit tolls would remain steady in 2010 for the second straight year, but said he expected 2.4 percent growth in the strategic waterway's revenues this year.

He said that although canal revenues had decreased by 20 percent in 2009 due to battered trade volumes during the global economic slowdown, piracy off the Gulf of Aden had little impact on the waterway that is a barometer for trade worldwide.

The global shipping industry, also hit by tight financing, is gearing up for a second year of turmoil in 2010. Industry watchers estimate as much as 15 percent of the world's shipping fleet could end up out of commission in 2010.

"To support global trade movement and (help) shipping companies overcome this (financial crisis), we have decided to keep the tolls steady," Fadel told the news conference.

Canal sources had said in December that the tolls for the canal, one of Egypt's main foreign currency earners, would stay on hold due to the fallout from the global financial crisis.

Fadel told reporters on Tuesday in Ismailia, on the banks of the canal, the authority could not consider reviewing tolls depending on fuel prices alone, but also on the recovery of the global economy and how shipping fares.

"Petrol is not the only factor. There are many there are other factors such as ... economic growth, inflation, how maritime trade routes are moving," he said.

He said canal revenues in 2009 were $4.291 billion, some 20 percent lower than $5.381 billion in 2008. The number of vessels passing through the canal in 2009 was 17,228, also about 20 percent down on the 2008 figure of 21,415.

"The effects of the global financial crisis are still facing the world and imposing difficult challenges. It is slowing recovery as growth in trade ... has not reached the level indicating a true revival for the global economy," he said.

PIRACY

Revenue from the canal fell 0.5 percent to $390 million in December, the smallest year-on-year fall since November 2008, when faltering global trade began to hit shipping traffic.

Hundreds of empty container ships, bulk carrier and others -- so-called "ghost ships" -- were idled in deep sea ports in Asia and Europe during 2009 following the slump in freight as the global crisis caused world trade to plunge.

Doubts remain about whether the economic revival is sustainable once governments and central banks curb the flow of easy money they have been pumping in to stimulate economies, but some believe trade will hold up thanks to strength in emerging markets.

Pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia have fanned industry fears that insurance and shipping costs could be driven higher and force companies to use long sea routes, further denting prospects for growth.

Piracy has flourished in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean shipping lanes and seaborne gangs have seized several cargo ships, collecting tens of millions of dollars in ransom. But Fadel said it had had minimal impact on Suez operations.

He said the fall in revenues last year was "90 percent from the financial crisis and 10 percent from piracy".

"If you look at the ships that were attacked ... they were caught on the Kenyan shores ... They have no relation to ships heading to the Suez canal," he said.

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Friday, January 22, 2010
Suez Canal, tariffs will remain unchanged in 2010


Photos of the Suez Canal Shooting orbit Earth. Source: NASA.
[IMG]http://i49.************/ic3fhl.jpg[/IMG]

January 2010
The Authority of the Suez Canal transit fees will remain unchanged for the second consecutive year, also in 2010. In 2009 ilo turnover of the Canal has declined by 20% to $ 4.3 billion. The ships transited were 17,228, 19.6% less compared to 21,415 in 2008. Tankers were 3478 units (-8.3%), vessels other 13,750 (-21.7%), of which 6080 container (-16.6%) and 3166 bulk (-21.8%). The dive was raised from 62 to 66 feet.

Source: Chamber of Labor in Pozzallo

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Suez Canal gets highest daily revenue since crisis

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Aug 15 (Reuters) - The Suez Canal last week earned its highest daily revenue since the 2008 financial crisis triggered a world trade slump, the canal authority said on Sunday, citing a recovering economy and canal improvements.

The canal is an important source of foreign currency for Egypt, along with tourism, oil and gas exports and remittances from Egyptians living abroad. As a major international shipping route, it is also seen as a barometer of global trade.

The canal earned $18.7 million as 65 ships passed through it carrying over 3 million tonnes of cargo on Friday, its biggest daily revenue since December 2008, the Suez Canal Authority said.

The authority this year allowed ships with draughts up to 66 feet (20 metres), which typically carry 220,000 tonnes of cargo, to enter the canal after it was deepened from 62 feet.

Revenue from the waterway fell in 2009 after the world economy slowed and pirates in the waters off Somalia pushed some ships to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, but the canal has seen a recovery this year in revenue and tonnage.

The canal brought in more than $4.5 billion in the year to June 30, 2010.

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Egypt Suez Canal Sept revenue climbs to $410 mln

CAIRO, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Revenue from Egypt's Suez Canal rose to $410.2 million in September from $382.5 million a year earlier, a state Web site showed on Saturday.

But revenue fell month on month from $438.4 million in August, the site said, compared with an earlier reported August figure of $436 million.

The waterway is a vital source of foreign currency in Egypt, along with tourism, oil and gas exports and remittances from Egyptians living abroad. ($1 = 5.6949 Egyptian pounds)

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Suez Canal traffic unaffected by protests-official

ISMAILIA, Egypt, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Movement of traffic through the Suez Canal was unaffected by ongoing protests across Egypt on Tuesday, the Canal Authority said.

"The movement today is normal. The number of ships passing through has increased to 65 today from 40 yesterday," said Ahmed Manakhi, a member of the canal's board.

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Rumor on the possible closure of the Suez Canal



Markets are analyzed, with the attention that the situation requires, the possibility that closed the Suez Canal, the waterway which pass huge amounts of oil every day.
[B]Closure of this passage from the Middle East to Europe, because of delays in deliveries of raw materials, followed by increases in import price of crude oil resulting in increased levels of consumer prices [/B. The thing that consumers need less than most industrialized nations of the Earth. With the rumor of a possible closure of the Suez Canal, oil prices jumped Friday, gaining two dollars in two hours, and today he continued his run, "said David Jones, Chief Market Strategist, IG Index.
Daily through the Suez Canal and Sumed Pipeline runs about 6% of world production of crude oil. The risk is that the transport is affected by this slowdown, if not their blocks. If this hypothesis were to manifest itself the transportation of crude oil to take other directions, but with inevitable delays. "Investors seem to be ready to take profits in the coming days," Jones takes over. Like him, several strategists are signaling that the time of risk aversion has arrived, but - stress - when the benchmark had been set for a correction. What is most frightening is a possible contagion among the producing countries. "Investors monitor risks that may increase with the complicated situation in the Middle East," says Jan. Kawabe, Chuo Mitsui Trust and broker of Banking. "The market should remain volatile, driven by his reluctance about the risk." The fear of the risk could increase in the coming days if the problems will spread to other countries in the Middle East.
After Tunisia and Egypt, Libya's Gaddafi could be the scene of the next political crisis that is shaking the Arab world. He wrote the U.S. site The Daily Beast, citing the U.S. embassy in Tripoli file published in recent weeks by Wikileaks. In one in particular, written last February by the Head of Mission Gene A. Cretz, citing estimates by local observers: for the Daily Beast, they indicate that Gaddafi has created a family dynasty, decadent, greedy for money, which could be the ideal goal of a coming revolution in the streets of the Arab country. "Gaddafi's family, especially his two sons, particularly the rebels - he wrote the account of the meeting by giving diplomatic contacts with the Egyptian embassy - has provided enough evidence of Libyan dirt for a soap opera."
Beyond speculation, the riots in Egypt, in fact, caused a rise in oil prices in Asian markets, with investors fearing the turmoil in the passage of oil from the Suez Canal. The WTI, March delivery, rose 37 cents to $ 89.71 per barrel and Brent North Sea of 18 cents to $ 99.60. And with the index sliding calendar macro of the day, among the events planned are expecting the Italian data on producer prices in December at 10, and the index of business confidence at 11. Also at 11 are scheduled as the results of the euro-zone inflation in January. It will be interesting to see what effect inflation may lead the rise of crude oil. Possible further price rises on the way, with inflation lurking, could put a strain on the start of the global recovery. "It is possible - concluded Yoichi Itoh, chief analyst Stb Research Institute - which we are witnessing a transformation of social structures in Islamic countries, and since it is a phenomenon never seen before, no one knows what will happen."
The channel, the third source of income in Egypt, was meanwhile put under military control.

Source; www.borsaitaliana.it

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Egypt says Iran ships can use Suez Canal - source

CAIRO, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Egypt has approved the passage of two Iranian navy ships through the Suez Canal, an army source said, a move that could annoy Israel whose right-wing foreign minister has called Iran's actions a provocation.

"Egypt has agreed to the passage of two Iranian ships through the Suez Canal," the army source told Reuters.

State television and Egypt's official news agency subsequently reported the news, without giving sources.

Iran's request was an early diplomatic test for Egypt's interim military government, which has close ties to the United States and has been ruling since Feb. 11 when President Hosni Mubarak stepped down in the face of a popular revolt.

Egypt's Western allies are watching for hints of any shift in policy towards its Middle East neighbours, especially Israel with which it has a peace treaty.

The two ships would be the first Iranian military vessels to pass through the canal since Iran's 1979 revolution.

To navigate the strategic waterway, naval vessels need the approval of Egypt's Foreign and Defence Ministries.

The Suez Canal Authority had yet to receive approval, a canal official said, adding that the next convoy from south to north would be at 6:00 a.m. (0400 GMT).

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday Iran's plan to send the ships through the canal en route to Syria was a "provocation".

Israel's state-funded Channel One television said later Lieberman, a stridently far-right partner in the conservative coalition, had spoken out of turn and the Defence Ministry "had preferred to ignore" the ships' approach.

There was no immediate comment from Israel after approval was given.

Egypt's military said the request stated the Iranian ships did not carry military equipment or nuclear or chemical cargo. It said the ships were in the Red Sea, at the canal's southern end.

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Suez Canal activity unaffected by strike-official

ISMAILIA, Egypt, March 5 (Reuters) - Shipping at Egypt's Suez Canal was unaffected by a strike by canal employees on Saturday, a Suez Canal Authority (SCA) official said. Dozens of employees at the Suez Canal gathered in front of one of the canal's administrative buildings in the northeastern city of Ismailia on Saturday to demonstrate against the head of the canal authority.

The demonstrators waved banners and expressed various grievances such as low pay and delays in promotions, which they said the SCA Chairman Ahmed Fadel had not yet addressed.

Suez Canal employees have been among the civil servants and workers who have gone on strike at businesses and factories across Egypt since the toppling of Hosni Mubarak on Feb 11., empowered by a newly found outlet for public expression.

The Suez Canal is an important source of foreign currency for Egypt, along with tourism, oil and gas exports and remittances from Egyptians living abroad.