"Conditions are now highly favourable for the return of all shipping companies, given the positive indicators that encourage the resumption of navigation through one of the most important international shipping routes, the Bab Strait el-Mandeb and the Suez Canal, considered the optimal route for support global trade between East and West". It has underlined yesterday Admiral Osama Rabie, president of the Authority of the Suez Canal, during a meeting with representatives of the of 20 shipping companies and shipping agencies. Rabie has highlighted that last October's peace summit in Sharm El-Sheikh managed to restore security and stability in the region and to send reassuring messages to the global maritime community on freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and in the Bab el-Mandeb region.

Rabie specified that this restoration of trust has been found in the statistics of ship traffic in the canal during the first half of the 2025/2026 fiscal year, which was concluded on 31 December and in which it was recorded an increase of +5.8% in the number of ships in transit, a growth of of +16% in tonnage and an increase of +18.5% in revenues generated by transits compared to the first half of the year previous tax system. In addition, the president of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) added that a further breakthrough is imminent given that several major shipping companies are making test transits in the channel after the stabilisation of the situation in the Red Sea region and given whereas there is no sustainable alternative to the Suez Canal in consideration of the high costs of transit through the Cape of Good Hope. A restoration of transits through Suez - underlined - is inevitable, even if variations and logistical arrangements to divert travel may require of time.

Finally, recalling that in order to stimulate the resumption of transits in the Egyptian channel, the SCA has already introduced incentives, including including one offering a 15% discount for container ships with a tonnage of at least 130,000 tons both loaded and empty, announced that the Egyptian Authority is currently evaluating the possibility of providing additional measures and incentives for some other types of ships.

Among the speeches of the representatives of maritime operators, Amr El Shafei, Chief Operating Officer for Egypt and Sudan of the French group CMA CGM, suggested evaluating the possibility of to offer additional incentives linked to the number of ships in transit, to encourage shipping companies to restore more substantial volumes of traffic through the channel. Others too shipping companies, including ONE and the MSC, called for the introduction of further incentives for encourage the resumption of transits in the canal, while Aziz Nabil of the shipping agency Inchcape Shipping Services said the the need to reduce insurance premiums for ships in transit through the Red Sea region in order to encourage the return of the main shipping companies and supported also the proposal to offer incentives linked to the number of ships for accelerate the return of companies.