President of the Suez Canal Authority, Admiral Mohab Mamish, announced that shipping traffic in the New Suez Canal registered an unprecedented record concerning the number of ships and loads crossing the canal. According to Admiral Mamish, 81 ships crossed the canal on Friday 2 August, with the highest daily tonnage of six million and 100,000 tons.
Last May, Admiral Mamish had said that statistics on global trade and shipping were promising. In August 2015, he had stood alongside President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi in a grand celebration inaugurating the “New Suez Canal”; a 72-kilometre canal had been dug parallel to and joining with the original canal, to speed up transit time and allow ships to sail in both directions at the same time. This created a mostly two-way 165km-long course joining the Mediterranean and Red Sea.
As head of the SCA, Admiral Mamish explained that the SCA adopts a flexible pricing policy that takes into account the variables of International maritime transport, attracting thus more freight ships; some had never before crossed through the Suez Canal.
Watani International
4 August 2019