Suez traffic came back without the discount. Egypt's record reserves came from gold.

Suez Canal revenue, August $567.1m, +56.7% y/y 31 August 2026. Suez Canal Authority, via Daily News EgyptIn May 2025 the Suez Canal Authority gave large container ships a 15% discount on transit fees to win back traffic that had gone around Africa. In early April 2026 it suspended the discount. The traffic came back anyway. In August the canal handled 1,358 ships, 27% more than a year earlier, carried 68.3 million net tonnes, up 51.1%, and earned $567.1 million, up 56.7%, without the discount. In mid-September Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd said four more Gemini services would return to Suez, three of them with first sailings between 19 and 24 September.

Change in gold vs foreign currency, August Gold +$1.919bn, FX -$1.158bn, SDRs +$160m 31 August 2026. Central Bank of Egypt, via The Rio TimesEgypt’s reserves set a record in the same month. Net international reserves reached $57.21 billion at the end of August, up $920 million, according to the Central Bank of Egypt. Gold did the work: gold holdings rose $1.919 billion and special drawing rights $160 million, while foreign currency fell $1.158 billion. The Rio Times, reporting the figures on 8 September, before the canal’s August numbers came out, called canal income “the weak leg” of Egypt’s foreign currency earnings.

Valtor’s inference Our reading, and it is an inference: the reserves record is mostly a gold price story, and it flatters Egypt’s dollar position. The canal is where new dollars can come from, and it is now earning them without the discount. That depends on carriers continuing to trust the Houthis’ declared target list, which leaves one of Egypt’s main sources of foreign currency exposed to decisions made in Sanaa.

What to watch

• The Suez Canal Authority’s September figures, the first month with the Houthis’ front line at the strait and with Gemini’s returned services running.
• The central bank’s September reserves release, and whether foreign currency rather than gold starts to drive it.

The canal is recovering on its own terms, and the reserves are rising on gold’s. Only the canal’s gains are dollars Egypt earns.