The New Suez Canal Route

by Victor Cherubim

( August 8, 2015, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Most people are actually not aware or even interested in what routes ships take when transporting goods around the world. However, many know that there are two international waterways for shipping to cross to reach their ports of call with their cargoes of goods from East to West. They are the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal.

The Panama Canal, since its opening in 1914, is restricted to the Panamax size vessels which have dimensions 294.13 m (965 ft) in length, 32.3m (106 ft) in width and 12.04 m (39.5 ft) draught to fit into the lock chambers of this crossing from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans.

The Suez Canal originally opened on 17 November 1869 and since expanded could accommodate container vessels and Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) 95,000 dwt with a draught of 42.7 ft and beam of 154 ft (46.9m).It is an artificial sea level waterway running north to south across the isthmus of Suez, in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

Suez Canal upgrade

On the 6 August 2015, a £ 6 billion project upgrading the existing Canal by adding a new waterway which took a year to complete was opened by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sisi with much fanfare. Unlike the previous construction, the current project is domestically financed by special Investment Certificates paying 10 -12% interest. It is the third time since its original build that the waterway has been significantly widened to allow for two-way parallel canal traffic, together with the Ballah underpass into Sinai. The plan is for up to 97 ships instead of the current 49 ships to transit the original 11 hour canal ship transit from south to north.

The newest upgrade started in August 2014.It involved building a 24 mile (35km) Ballah bypass along the 120 mile (193km) long canal and deepening it so as to allow bigger tankers and container vessels to travel in the different directions simultaneous.

History of the Suez Canal

After World War II, with the creation of the State of Israel, the rise of Gamal Abdel Nasser, an Army Colonel, in Egypt and the Arab-Israeli wars, the Suez Canal was frequently a focal point of tension in the Middle East.

“In 1950 Egypt which controlled the entrances to the canal, began denying passage to Israeli ships and their cargoes. There were also several clashes between British and Egyptian forces in the Canal Zone until Britain, in 1954, agreed to gradually withdraw from the area.”

“In july, 1956, a month after the last British troops were removed, Nasser nationalised the canal, taking over ownership from the Suez Canal Company 12 years before the original concession was to expire. Nasser’s move, prompted in part by the need for funds to build the Aswan High Dam, caused an international crisis. In October Israel invaded Egypt, and British and French troops, in an attempt to retake the canal, occupied Port Said, Ismailia and Suez. The canal was closed, with Egyptian ships scuttled in the channel. The United Nations quickly arranged a ceasefire, and all foreign forces withdrew.”

“Egypt reopened the canal in April 1957, after a United Nations team cleared the channel with Egypt paying $65 million to stockholders of the Suez Canal Company in compensation for nationalisation.”

“The canal was again closed by Egypt when Israel occupied the Sinai during the Six Day War in 1997. It remained closed with wrecked and trapped ships until June, 1975, when, exactly eight years after closing, the waterway was reopened to international traffic”.

My voyage through the Suez Canal enroute to New York

I had firsthand experience of the first reopening of the Suez Canal. Our freighter, ms.”Francisville” a Norwegian vessel was the first foreign flag vessel allowed to transit the Suez in August 1957. When the Egyptian Immigration authorities came on board they were pleasantly surprised to witness the only “stearate” and only passenger on board was a Ceylonese. I was given a special welcome as I came from a Non Aligned Nation and entertained by the Egyptians and allowed permission ashore. I could not believe our stand as viewed by Egypt at that time.

Politics and the Suez Canal

As much as we would like to keep politics apart from international trade and shipping, the Suez is big business for ship owners. The watery corridors of commerce are so important to the lifeblood of the global economy? For the biggest shipping companies around the world, routes and ports of call are equally important so that exact shipping time calculations can be made ahead of schedule, for trade to move swiftly. Hence the busiest shipping lanes are very important to shipping lines, due to the volume of trade.

Advantage of Suez

The advantage of the Suez is that ships save as much as 10 nautical days at sea instead of sailing around Africa. The Suez is today the fastest link between Asia and Europe and accounts for almost 7% of global seaborne trade. The advantage for Egyptian Government is that instead of foreign finance, its people have pumped in $5.5 billion into an economy weakened by years of turmoil. It is the claim by economists that the project will not only expand (double) the capacity of the tonnage passing through the Canal but more than double the annual revenue to $13.5 billion by 2023. It is the general feeling and commentators maintain that the Suez Canal project is the start of good things to come after years of turmoil in Egypt. Of course, there is no quick fix for either Egypt or for that matter Sri Lanka’s economic problems, as even the projected extra revenue, may well take time to deliver.

I apologise to my readers for being so exact in the dimensions of the above waterways, which was an essential part of my learning for my Shipbrokers ‘examinations years ago.