On Saturday, the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin container ship of the French CMA CGM, which departed from Southampton and headed to Port Klang, crossed the Suez Canal. The ship, with its capacity of 17,859 TEUs, it is the largest container ships that passed through the Egyptian canal in the the last two years, since the Houthi attacks on ships in the region of the Red Sea and the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb have induced All major container shipping companies to change the routes of their naval units to avoid crossing the Egyptian waterway.

The president and CEO of Suez Canal Authority, Osama Rabie, highlighted that the transit of the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin represents a positive sign of the return of large container ships to the canal which, thanks to the incentives and marketing policies adopted by the Authority Egyptian, has already been crossed again by 28 medium-sized container carriers on trips between Europe and Asia.