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Article: Suez Canal is raking in the revenues: before the US invasion of Iraq last year, Egypt's Suez Canal Authority predicted that a fully-fledged war in the Middle East would disrupt regional maritime traffic, slashing canal revenues by 10% or more. In reality, exactly the opposite has happened.
- Article from:
- The Middle East
- Article date:
- October 1, 2004
- Author:
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THE SUEZ CANAL IS IN THE MIDST OF booming volumes, sparked by a jump in Chinese exports to Europe and, to a much lesser extent, US military cargo bound for Iraq.
Last year, the Suez Canal generated $2.57bn in revenues--the highest in the canal's 135-year history--as 15,634 ships transited the waterway with a combined cargo of around 548 million tons, up from $1.8bn the year before.
Anil Vitharana, president of United Arab Agencies Inc. in Cranford, N.J., said Iraq-bound cargo is at a "trickle" compared to the huge volumes moving in the Asia-Europe trade.
"As far as we can see, there is very little commercial cargo moving to Iraq. Whatever moves ...