Egypt has already started expanding the Suez Canal

On Saturday, the Suez Canal Authority began work on expanding the southern section to a distance of ten kilometers, as the Evergiven runaway last March, causing the blockage of one of the most important shipping routes in the world. The first phase of the project will be held in the Pikinos Lagos area, which will be extended by 10 kilometers to reach 82 kilometers in length.

The intervention to expand and deepen the Suez Canal was approved last Tuesday by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and it soon reached the ground. Effi news agency quoted Admiral Osama Rabie, head of the authority that controls the channel, indicating that the start of the intervention is in implementation of “the directives of the President of the Republic.” [egípcio] Abdel Fattah El-Sisi immediately embarks on “expansion and setting up an agenda to complete it as quickly as possible.”

The official said that the project comes as a continuation of “efforts to develop the navigation route that began with the opening of the new Suez Canal,” which is very important for international trade, pointing out that the project will include “several phases.” The intervention covers more than 50 kilometers of the southern portion of the canal, where Ever Given, a 200,000-ton container carrier, carrying the Panama flag and operated by Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corporation, ran aground on March 23 this year.

The first phase, which began on Saturday, will focus on the Small Lakes region, which will expand by 10 km to reach a length of 82 km in the part of the new canal, which was opened in 2015, according to the official statement. He added, “The importance of the ongoing expansion project is to increase the efficiency of the canal and reduce the crossing time for boats, in addition to increasing the navigation safety factor in the southern region.” [sul] From the canal, “according to Rabie. In the second phase, work will continue to expand the southern region by another 30 kilometers. The perspective, according to Rabei, is that the implementation of the project will take 24 months, but he admits that. It may be short because these are the president’s guidelines.”

The container ship owned by Japan and owned by Panama, Everead Geffen, veered off the Suez Canal on March 23, after returning to sail six days later, but is still on the canal’s Great Lake due to an economic dispute between the owners and Autredad de Canal, which is seeking compensation of 755 million euros for the damage it caused. Out.

The six-day blockade disrupted part of world trade, forcing some boats to travel the alternate route through the southern tip of Africa, while more than 400 ships were stranded near the canal, in both the north and south. According to the Securities and Commodities Authority, Egypt lost between 12 and 15 million dollars (9.8 to 12.3 million euros) per day with the channel closed for a week. Negotiations are underway regarding compensation for the ship’s owner and the Egyptian authorities.