The number of oil tankers crossing Egypt’s Suez Canal surged by almost a third in April and drove revenue to the highest since early 2024, as the closure of the Strait of Hormuz spurred an alternative Red Sea energy route.
A total of 529 tankers transited that month, 28% more than the year before, according to state statistics agency CAPMAS. Broader traffic picked up too, with 1,182 vessels of all types making the journey — a 14% increase on April 2025.
While Suez Canal crossings dropped after Houthi rebels in Yemen began attacking shipping in the southern Red Sea more than two years ago, the latest publicly available data in Egypt suggests the knock-on effects of the US-Israeli war on Iran have brought an unanticipated fillip.
The Hormuz strait, through which a fifth of the world’s crude and liquefied natural gas once transited, has been effectively shut since shortly after
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