CAIRO, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Traffic passing through Egypt's Suez Canal on Friday reached an all-time record registering the highest tonnage per day in the waterway's history, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority Mohab Mamish said in a statement.
"Altogether 81 ships carrying 6.1 million tons of load passed through the canal," the statement said.
Among them, 43 ships came from the north with a total load of 3.01 million tons, while 38 ships came from the south, according to the statement.
The Danish giant container Manchester Maersk crossed the canal with 221,000 tons in its journey from Morocco to Singapore.
Mamish said the unprecedented record in the canal's traffic in terms of the number and tonnage indicated confidence in the waterway capabilities.
Some 12 percent of the world trade volume passes through the Suez Canal which is considered the most important and fastest navigation passage connecting Africa, Asia and Europe by bridging the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
The canal's revenues reached 104.2 billion Egyptian pounds (6.2 billion U.S. dollars) for the fiscal year 2018-2019 compared with 74.2 billion pounds in 2016-2017, a 40.4-percent increase, according to official statistics.
