After almost a week, the stuck container ship MV Ever Given was refloated and traffic resumed in the Suez Canal on Monday.
The 193-km-long canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea in the north and the Red Sea in the south, saves thousands of nautical miles for ships sailing from Asia to Europe and vice versa.
The volume of cargo sailing through the canal has surged in recent years, with more than a billion tonnes navigating through it in 2019. That year, 17% of the major commodities that sailed southbound on the canal were headed to Indian ports, while 12% of products that sailed northbound originated from India.
Annual cargo
In 2019, nearly 19,000 vessels carried 1.2 billion tonnes of cargo through the canal, the highest on record. The volume of cargo transported reduced substantially following the global financial crisis in 2008-09 but picked up again in the subsequent years.
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A shortcut
The tables compare the distance (in nautical miles) between key ports when sailing via the Suez Canal and around the Cape of Good Hope. Sailing via the Suez Canal reduces the distance between the ports in Mumbai and New York by over 3,200 nautical miles, compared to sailing around the Cape of Good Hope.
Also read: Probe underway, day after cargo ship 'Ever Given' freed in Suez Canal
India connect
The tables show the volumes of various products carried across the canal in two directions — southbound towards destination countries and northbound from nations of origin.
For instance, of the 24,930 tonnes of coal and coke that sailed towards the south of the canal, 67% went to India, the highest volume among all importing countries in the southbound direction.
Of the 1,11,372 tonnes of oil products that sailed from the south to the north of the canal, 17% were from India, the third-highest among exporting countries in the northbound direction.
Source: Suez Canal Authority
