ALMOST 12 000 ships used the Suez Canal in the first 10 months of 2001, up on the same period of last year when a record was set for revenues, the head of the canal authority said Tuesday. A total of “11 823 ships transporting 385,5-million tons used the Suez Canal in the first 10 months of 2001, or up by 74 ships compared with the same period” in 2000, Ahmed Fadel told reporters. He gave no figures for revenues, saying only that the total covered all categories of shipping. Last year’s revenues of around two billion dollars were a new record for the canal which opened in 1879. In the first four months of 2001, revenues reached $470,3-million. But the government projects a 184-million-dollar fall in annual revenues following the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington. In the wake of the attacks, however, dozens of Western warships have sailed through the Suez to reach the Indian Ocean as part of the US-led war on terrorism waged since October in Afghanistan. – AFP