With the growth of the Asia-Europe trade, the Suez Canal experienced a surge in the number of transits and tonnage in the 2000s. This surge has been accompanied by a growth of transshipment activities at Port Said, which is located at the Mediterranean entrance of the canal, and Jeddah on the Red Sea. This traffic leveled off in the early 2010s. The remaining ports in the region are mostly hinterland ports, some vying for a share of the transshipment activity generated around the bottleneck. Still, anchoring transshipment traffic is a complex proposition. For instance, the port of Sokhna (Ain Sokhna) was inaugurated in 2003 on the southern end of the Suez Canal, expecting to become a major transshipment hub, complementing Port Said. However, the port has been slow to attract significant transshipment traffic.
The connectivity offered by the Suez Canal concerns first its link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, supporting deep-sea shipping services. The second connectivity is the interlining and feeder services calling at the transshipment ports of the Mediterranean facade (mostly Port Said). The third, on the Red Sea side, offers limited feedering and primarily concerns interlining (mostly Jeddah).