Apart from commerce and shipping the main elements in the city's economy are foodstuffs and chemical industries and the production of salt.

Port Said (Bur Said; named after Viceroy Said, 1854-63), chief town of a governorate, Egypt's fourth largest city and after Alexandria its largest port, lies in a barren and desolate setting on a narrow strip of land which is gradually increasing in width by the deposit of silt between Lake Manzala and the north entrance of the Suez Canal, to which the town owed its foundation in 1859.

In November 1956 much of what was then a thriving town was destroyed by air bombardment during the Suez War. It made a rapid recovery, but suffered another severe blow when the Suez Canal was closed to traffic in 1967 and the Sinai Peninsula was occupied by Israeli forces, some 70% of the population being evacuated. Reconstruction has been under way since 1974, and it is planned to develop the port into a major center of trade with the Near East and East Asia, with free port facilities and an international airport.