Cairo, Jan 3 : The revenues of Egypt's Suez Canal in 2021 reached $6.3 billion, the highest in the waterway's history, a top official said here. In a statement on Sunday, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Osama Rabie said that the waterway has also registered the largest annual net tonnages of 1.27 billion tonnes in 2021, compared to 1.17 billion tonnes in 2020, an increase of 8.5 per cent, reports Xinhua news agency. The revenues of the Suez Canal during 2021 achieved a significant increase of 12.8 per cent, said Rabie, noting that the revenues of the canal recorded $5.6 billion in 2020. A total of 20,694 ships passed through both directions of the canal, compared to the transit of 18,830 ships in 2020, an increase of 10 per cent. The Egyptian official stressed that the records reflect the flexibility of the SCA in dealing with crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In November 2021, the SCA announced it will increase the toll fees for the ships transiting through the canal by 6 per cent as of February 2022. The Suez Canal is a major lifeline for global seaborne trade since it allows ships to travel between Europe and South Asia without navigating around Africa, thereby reducing the sea voyage distance between Europe and India by about 7,000 km. Some 12 per cent of the world trade volume passes through the man-made canal, which is a major source of hard currency in Egypt. /IANS