Mohab Mamish, who is chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), made the announcement that the Suez Canal managed to hit a new record with 70 ships with a 4-million-ton capacity crossing the canal.
Roughly 34 vessels have passed from the north convoy of the canal, while another 36 vessels passed through the south.
Image: mmgroupegypt
"The crossing vessels’ rising number displays the importance of the new Suez Canal as well as that of increasing the capacity of the canal for receiving the larger volumes of global trade,” further saidMamish via a press statement.
The 200,000-ton Danish containers’ ship Mathilde Maersk crossed the Suez Canal from the north on Tuesday and served as the largest ship to ever do so, while the enormous Barzan is the largest to cross the canal from the south, with its capacity of 200,000 tons.
As made evident by the press statement, Mathilde Maersk was travelling from Belgium en route to Saudi Arabia; it is among the world’s largest container carriers with a capacity for carrying 18,270 container units. Barzan was sailing en route from Malaysia to Spain.
"Expectations are for the Suez Canal to generate about USD 13.4 billion by the year 2023,”commented Mamish.
The canal is also going to increase its capacity to 97 vessels on a daily basis instead of 45, as reported. Since the New Suez Canal’s inauguration that took place on August 6th, 194 vessels in total have passed through it.
"We promised the world a gift and we have managed to accomplish delivering it in a record-breaking time – an additional artery to generate prosperity and connect civilizations for the enhancing of international trade movement," said President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.
The New Suez Canal was constructed for the purposes of accelerating maritime transport via the provision of two-way vessel movement in the canal.