Traffic through Egypt's Suez Canal has not been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and shipping is proceeding at normal rates, Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), said in a statement on Wednesday.



The statement added that 1,662 vessels passed through the waterway in both directions in March 2020, compared to 1,589 ships in the same period last year, an increase of 4.6 percent



The total net tonnage reached 101.1 million tonnes, compared to 97.796 million in March 2019, a 3.4 percent rise.



Rabie noted that the first quarter the current year recorded an increase in the number of ships by 8.4 percent and an increase in tonnage by 8.5 percent in comparison with the first quarter of 2019.



The canal, which is the fastest shipping route between Europe and Asia, is one of Egypt's main sources of foreign currency.




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