Giant French vessel pays $7m to cross Suez Canal

The largest cargo vessel sailing into Suez Canal under the French flag paid 7 million pounds as tolls for passing through the Canal, said a well-placed official with the Suez Canal Authority.

The vessel, Bougainville, crossed the Suez Canal with 18,500 containers on board, Tarek Hassanien, the authority's spokesman, said.

At 400 meters long and 54 meters wide, Bougainville and its extraordinary dimensions add 18,000 TEU (20-feet equivalent containers) capacity to CMA CGM’s French Asia line.

CMA CGM Bougainville was delivered by Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries on August 25 and begun its first rotation by calling at Asian ports.

The ship has the capacity to transport nearly 200,000 tons of goods between European, Middle East and Asian markets.