Shipping traffic through the Suez Canal has remained unaffected by protests in Egypt over the past six days, an official with the waterway's operator said yesterday.

Thirty-eight ships passed through the vital east-west trade corridor yesterday carrying 1.5 million tonnes of cargo, Suez Canal Authority spokesman Mahmoud Abdelwahab told the Times of Oman.

That compares with 47 vessels that transited the waterway on Saturday, he said.

More than four million barrels a day of crude oil, or 4.5 percent of global production, are shipped through the canal or a pipeline that runs adjacent to it, according to New York-based McQuilling Services.

But the world shipping lines are watching unfolding events carefully and Egypts’s Port Said and Alexandria ports remain closed.

PR News Service reports that APL is re-routing cargo via Salalah and Malta and Maersk has warned customers to expect delays with Egypt shipments.

Should the Suez be closed, the world’s shipping lines on the Asia-Europe trade have the option of the longer transit around the Cape of Good Hope.

When trade slowed last year, many carriers opted to slow steam around the Cape rather than lay up vessels. But high bunker fuel prices and shorter supply chain cycles make the longer route very much an emergency Plan B rather than a preferred option.

Source: CargonewsAsia.