SUEZ CANAL HAS HAD RECORD YEAR.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18545, 20 August 1928, Page 3

SUEZ CANAL HAS HAD RECORD YEAR.

The traffic of the Suez Canal showed unprecedented activity during 1927, according to the report presented at the seventy-fourth general meeting of the Suez Canal Company, which was held in Paris recently.

The transport receipts were 11 per cent higher than in 1925, which was hitherto the best on record. An examination of the economic situation, the report says, does not at the moment warrant the conclusion that the progress in the Canal traffic realised since the beginning of 1928 will be continued until the end of the year. The net tonnage of the first four months exceeded that of last year by ,Sf»0.000 tons.

The maritime movements of- the canal comprised a total of 5545 passages representing a net measure ment of 28,952.048 x tops. These figures surpass all previous results. The net tonnage exceeded that* of 1926 by 2,901.671 tons, and that of 1925. which was the highest, by 2,200,113 tons. The traffic in ballast amounted to 2,409,621 tonfe, and represented 8.3 p-er cent of the total movement, as against 7.S per cent in the preceding year. In this particu-

lar traffic tankers accounted for 75 per cent.

Average Size of Ships. 'The average size of the ships using the canal showed little change. It reached 7237 tons, as against 7256 in 1926. The proportion of transits effected by ships ever 10,000 tons increased from 10.5 per cent to 10.6 The average time of transit was lowered to fifteen hours six minutes, and is the lowest on record. It was particularly satisfactory, in view of the much greater density of the traffic. The n umbei 1 of passages increased from 286,432 to 340,318.

The distribution of the transmitted tonnage, as usual, placed the British flag in the front rank, with 57.1 per cent of the total traffic, as against 57.4 the preceding vear. I hen followed Holland, German v (increase 609,000 tons). France and Italy

The merchandise shipped through the canal was 29.500 000 tons (deadweight). This exceeded by nearly 3,000,000 tons the previous maximum, registered in 1925, and by more than 4,000,000 tons the total for 1925.

The excess of receipts over expenditure was £5,314.000 <on the basis of 121 francs tu the £1).