Suez Canal shipping: oil flows, revenue and the 2026 detour

Suez Canal shipping carried about 4.9 million barrels a day of crude and products in the first half of 2025, counting the canal and the parallel SUMED pipeline, according to the EIA. That is barely more than half the 8.8 mb/d of 2023, the last full year before Houthi attacks at the southern end of the Red Sea pushed most Asia to Europe trade around Africa. The canal itself has never been closed in this crisis. It is 193 km long, has no locks, and links the Mediterranean at Port Said to the Red Sea at Suez, cutting roughly two weeks off a voyage between the Gulf and northwest Europe.

The canal's problem is that it sits at the far end of someone else's chokepoint. Every ship arriving from the south must first pass Bab el-Mandeb, and since November 2023 that strait has decided how much traffic Suez gets. Revenue for Egypt's Suez Canal Authority peaked at $9.4 billion in the 2022/23 fiscal year and collapsed in 2024; it has been recovering through 2026 on a different mix of cargo, as tankers loading Saudi crude at Yanbu used the canal to reach Europe while the Strait of Hormuz stayed closed. As of mid-September 2026 that feed has also stopped: drone strikes shut the East-West pipeline to Yanbu on 10 and 11 September.

Key numbers

Metric	Value	Source	As of
Oil flow, Suez Canal and SUMED	4.9 mb/d	EIA	2025-H1
Oil flow before the Red Sea crisis	8.8 mb/d	EIA	2023
Share of world maritime oil trade	~6%	EIA	2025-H1
SUMED pipeline capacity	2.5 mb/d	EIA	static
Record fiscal-year revenue	$9.4 billion	Suez Canal Authority	2023-06
Transits in the record fiscal year	~25,800	Suez Canal Authority	2023-06
Revenue, second quarter	$1.26 billion	CAPMAS	2026-Q2
Vessel transits, January to August	9,602	Suez Canal Authority	2026-08
Length	193.3 km	Suez Canal Authority	static
Maximum laden draught	20.1 m	Suez Canal Authority	static

What flows through the Suez Canal

Oil is the most visible cargo but not the largest by value. In normal years the canal handled around a tenth of world seaborne trade, most of it containers on the Asia to Europe loop, alongside tankers, bulk carriers, car carriers and LNG ships. The EIA series shows how the oil side moved: 5.4 mb/d in 2020, 7.3 mb/d in 2022 as Europe replaced Russian barrels with Middle Eastern and Asian cargoes, a peak of 8.8 mb/d in 2023, then 4.8 mb/d in 2024 and 4.9 mb/d in the first half of 2025.

The canal is two systems. The waterway takes ships in both directions. The SUMED pipeline, 2.5 mb/d of capacity between Ain Sukhna on the Red Sea and Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean, takes crude from tankers too large to transit fully laden, which lighten at Ain Sukhna and reload at Sidi Kerir. Shipbroker Banchero Costa found that 11.2% of Saudi crude exports in the first five months of 2025 went to Ain Sukhna to feed SUMED, most of it ending in Europe.

Containers are the part that has not come back. Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM began testing the route again in early 2026, three months after the last Houthi attack of the 2023 to 2025 campaign, then rerouted around the Cape once more in March 2026 when war with Iran began, according to Reuters. Container traffic remained around four-fifths below its pre-crisis level through mid-2026.

Who depends on the Suez Canal

Egypt first. Canal receipts are one of the country's four main sources of foreign currency with tourism, remittances and merchandise exports, and the fall from $9.4 billion in 2022/23 to around $4 billion in 2024 put direct pressure on the pound. The authority has leaned on discounts and rebates to bring lines back. Revenue reached $1.26 billion in the second quarter of 2026, 13% more than the first quarter, per CAPMAS, and the authority reported 1,358 transits in August 2026, 27% more than a year earlier.

Europe depends on the canal for speed rather than volume. The EIA puts a voyage from the Arabian Sea to the Netherlands at 19 days via Suez against 34 around Africa. When the canal is avoided, European refiners and importers pay in freight, inventory and time rather than in missing barrels.

Saudi Arabia became the most important single user in 2026. With Hormuz shut, Aramco moved crude west through the East-West pipeline to Yanbu, and Suez and SUMED were the only ways to take it to the Mediterranean without passing Bab el-Mandeb. See Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports.

Alternatives and bypass routes

Cape of Good Hope. The only real alternative for traffic between Asia and Europe, adding 10 to 14 days. It absorbed most container traffic from 2024 onward. See Cape of Good Hope.

SUMED. An alternative to the canal for crude only, and only for cargoes already inside the Red Sea. It moves up to 2.5 mb/d and does not help a ship coming from the Gulf of Aden.

Eilat-Ashkelon. Israel's pipeline from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean is not commercially available; Eilat port ceased operations during the Houthi campaign.

Overland and rail. China to Europe rail and sea-air via Dubai carry high-value goods, but at a scale measured in thousands of containers, not in the millions the canal handled.

The arithmetic is unusual: the canal has an alternative that works, and the cost of using it is time. That is why Suez disruptions show up in freight rates and insurance before they show up in commodity prices.

Historical incidents

Date	Event	Observed impact	Source
2026-09-11	Saudi Arabia shuts the East-West pipeline to Yanbu after drone strikes	The main tanker feed into the northern Red Sea stops; no crude loads at Yanbu after 11 September	Kpler; Saudi Ministry of Energy
2026-08	1,358 transits and $567 million of revenue in the month	Transits up 27% and revenue up 57% year on year, driven by tankers	Suez Canal Authority
2026-03	War with Iran closes Hormuz; Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM reroute around the Cape again	Container return reversed; Saudi crude diverted to Yanbu lifts tanker traffic	Reuters
2026-02-08	Authority reports $449 million from 1,315 transits since 1 January	First sustained recovery since 2023; Maersk tests the route with ME11 service	Suez Canal Authority
2023-11-19	Houthis seize the Galaxy Leader, opening the Red Sea campaign	Canal oil flows fall from 8.8 mb/d in 2023 to 4.8 mb/d in 2024; revenue falls by more than half	EIA; Suez Canal Authority
2021-03-23	Ever Given runs aground and blocks the canal	Traffic halted for six days; the authority says Egypt lost $12 million to $15 million a day	Suez Canal Authority via AFP
2015-08-06	New Suez Canal opens with a 35 km parallel channel	Two-way traffic on part of the route; daily capacity rises to 97 ships	Suez Canal Authority
1967-06 to 1975-06	Canal closed after the Six-Day War	Eight years of traffic around Africa; 15 ships trapped in the Great Bitter Lake	Suez Canal Authority
1956-10 to 1957-04	Closure during the Suez Crisis after nationalisation	Egypt scuttles ships in the channel; Europe faces fuel rationing	Suez Canal Authority

Assets and companies exposed

Egyptian state. The Suez Canal Authority, the SUMED operator Arab Petroleum Pipelines Company (owned by Egypt's EGPC with Saudi Aramco, ADNOC, Kuwaiti and Qatari partners), the ports of Port Said East and Ain Sukhna, and the Suez Canal Economic Zone.

Container lines. Maersk, MSC, CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, COSCO and Evergreen decide the canal's revenue base. Their network choice, not canal capacity, sets volumes.

Tanker owners and traders. Owners of Suezmax and Aframax tonnage in the northern Red Sea trades, and traders moving Saudi and Iraqi crude to the Mediterranean. Longer voyages around Africa lift tonne-miles and rates for the same owners when the canal is avoided.

European importers. Refiners in Italy, Spain, France and Greece that took Gulf crude via SUMED, and the Mediterranean LNG terminals that receive Gulf cargoes by the short route. This entry is descriptive: the encyclopedia does not publish recommendations.

What to watch

• Monthly transits and revenue from the Suez Canal Authority and CAPMAS: the clearest public sign of whether lines trust the route. The authority's target for 2026 was around $5.8 billion to $6 billion.
• East-West pipeline and Yanbu loadings: Aramco and Saudi Ministry of Energy statements plus Kpler and Vortexa data. Without Yanbu, tanker traffic into the northern Red Sea falls back.
• Bab el-Mandeb: the Houthi embargo on Saudi shipping and control of Perim island decide how much traffic can reach the canal from the south.
• Container network announcements: a return of any major Asia to Europe loop to the canal is the event that would restore most of the lost revenue.
• EIA quarterly chokepoint data: Suez and SUMED oil volumes by quarter.

FAQ

How much oil goes through the Suez Canal? About 4.9 million barrels a day in the first half of 2025, counting the canal and the SUMED pipeline, according to the EIA. That compares with 8.8 mb/d in 2023. The fall came from the Houthi attacks at Bab el-Mandeb, which pushed tankers around Africa, not from anything inside the canal.

Is the Suez Canal open? Yes. It has stayed open throughout the Red Sea and Hormuz crises of 2023 to 2026. Traffic is lower because ships have to reach it through the Red Sea: most container lines still sail around the Cape of Good Hope, and tanker traffic in 2026 has depended on Saudi exports from Yanbu, which stopped after the East-West pipeline was shut on 11 September 2026.

How much money does Egypt make from the Suez Canal? The record was $9.4 billion in the 2022/23 fiscal year. Revenue fell to around $4 billion in 2024 and has been recovering since: the authority reported $4.67 billion for 2025/26, and CAPMAS recorded $1.26 billion in the second quarter of 2026 alone.

What is the SUMED pipeline? A 2.5 mb/d crude pipeline across Egypt from Ain Sukhna on the Red Sea to Sidi Kerir on the Mediterranean. It lets very large tankers that cannot transit the canal fully laden unload on one side and reload on the other. It is an alternative to the canal, not to Bab el-Mandeb.

Why don't all ships use the Suez Canal again? Because the risk is at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, not in the canal. Container lines rebuilt their networks around the Cape in 2024, and switching back takes months of scheduling. The 2026 war with Iran, renewed Houthi attacks and the embargo on Saudi shipping have given them no reason to switch yet.

Work with the Bureau

CMB produces decision-grade analysis for funds, trading houses and corporates exposed to these flows.

Talk to CMB