Winding through this small Egyptian town [of Ismailia] like an artery, pumping cash into its hospitals and schools and beyond into the wider economy, the Suez Canal has flourished as a shipping shortcut. Now the faltering global economy, coupled with a rise in piracy to the canal’s south, looks set to end the high times for the waterway and the town Egyptians call its bride.
The canal, versions of which were first built by pharaohs more than three millennia ago, has helped the world’s most populous Arab country to its fastest growth in decades, contributing 3.3 percent of gross domestic product in the 2007/2008 fiscal year. A near "perfect storm" of world trends has lifted revenue from the … 110-mile waterway to record levels: a surge in global trade powered by China and India, higher global shipping costs, capacity problems with the Panama Canal and higher oil prices forcing shippers to take shorter routes. …
But some are predicting tougher times ahead. … "The shipping industry has already started to see a slowdown and a fairly dramatic fall in freight rates," said Emily Comyn, spokeswoman at the International Chamber of Shipping in London. "Coupled with falling steel prices and the seeming reduction in Chinese demand for iron ore and coal, the industry in general can probably expect a significant slowdown in the coming months, and this will of course be reflected in Suez Canal transits." Access the full article>>
