Stranded oil tanker blocks Suez traffic

ISMAILIYA, Egypt (Thomson Financial) – Traffic in Egypt’s Suez Canal was disrupted today after an oil tanker broke down in the waterway, a canal authority official told Agence France-Presse.

The 150,000-tonne tanker, flying the Maltese flag and travelling from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, rammed the east bank of the canal after its navigation system broke down, the official said.


The Suez Canal is Egypt’s third largest source of revenue after tourism and remittances from expatriate workers and currently about 7.5 pct of global trade passes through the waterway.