Suez revenue is up 57 per cent and still more than a third below where it was in 2023

Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, gave August figures at Egypt’s World Maritime Day event in Alexandria, held under the theme “From Policy to Practice: Advancing Maritime Excellence”. Transits reached 1,358 vessels, up from 1,070 in August 2025, a 27% rise; net tonnage reached 68.3m tonnes against 45.2m, up 51.1%; revenue was $567.1m against $326m, up 56.7%, Daily News Egypt reported on 20 September. The Middle East Observer added the comparison that carries the story: August receipts remain roughly 36% below the $888.6m recorded in August 2023, before Red Sea and Bab el-Mandeb disruption pushed lines around the Cape. Net container-ship tonnage reached 72.1m tonnes in January–August, up 54.2% from 46.7m. The SCA says services from CMA CGM, Maersk, MSC, Hapag-Lloyd and COSCO have returned, including the COSCO-linked OOCL Portugal, put at roughly 24,000 TEU.

Two structural features sit under the headline percentages. Tonnage is rising faster than vessel count — 51.1% against 27% — meaning bigger ships and heavier cargo rather than simply more traffic. And the return is asymmetric: Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are shifting four additional Gemini services back through Suez in September and Ocean Alliance partners are restoring eastbound Europe–Asia sailings, while some westbound routes remain around the Cape. Carriers are buying one leg and not the other. The second qualifier is Hormuz. Transport Topics, citing CAPMAS data, reported July revenue up 42% year on year on 1,340 transits, of which 526 were oil tankers, up from 485 in June — attributed at least partly to Saudi crude rerouted via the Red Sea because Hormuz is closed. Mohamed Abu Basha, head of macroeconomic analysis at EFG Hermes, expects the resurgence to continue on Asia-bound oil rerouting and European carriers resuming Red Sea services.

Assessment: Read the canal as hedged confidence priced leg by leg, not as restored confidence. A material share of the gain is a war windfall: tanker traffic that exists because a strait a thousand miles away is shut. If Hormuz reopens, part of this reverses, and it will reverse into a balance of payments that the government is currently presenting to a rating agency as durable. Note also that the Authority’s own annual numbers do not reconcile — the 2023 record appears as $9.4bn in one Rabie interview and $10.2bn in CAPMAS data cited elsewhere. Until the basis is pinned, the only defensible annual figure is the SCA’s own 2026 projection of $5.8bn–$6bn, and it is a projection.