Head of the Suez Canal Authority Mohab Mamish said that the canal recorded on Wednesday its second-highest record of daily tonnage in its history. According to Mamish, 68 ships crossed the canal in both directions carrying a total load of 5.5 million tons.
In the statement, Mamish said that 37 vessels crossed the Suez Canal coming from the north carrying a weight of 2.8 million tons while 31 vessels crossed coming from the south carrying 2.7 million tons. The canal witnessed the crossing of 10 giant vessels carrying more than 150,000 tons of cargo per vessel. Eleven other ships crossed carrying a tonnage ranging from 100,000 to 150,000 tons per ship.
He added that the traffic coming from the north was topped by the giant container ship OOCL SCANDINAVIA, flying the flag of Hong Kong, with a load of 221,000 tons on its journey from the United Kingdom heading to Malaysia while the giant container ship MSC SVEVA, flying the flag of Panama, led the convoy coming from the south with a tonnage of 196,000 on its journey from Malaysia to Spain.
Mamish said that the new record reflects the strategic navigational importance of the Suez Canal as the shortest and fastest navigational route linking the East and the West, especially after the success of the new Suez Canal project in enhancing the Canal’s leading international position.
He pointed out that the new Suez Canal is not only a development project but also a cornerstone of a series of giant national projects recently adopted by the Egyptian state for the development of the Suez Canal area.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
