Suez project a good step, but Egypt needs to industrialise

Egypt has begun the construction of a national project aimed to exploit its strategic location by widening and deepening the Suez Canal, the most important maritime corridor connecting world markets.

Construction of the project is underway through Egyptian companies and efforts and an eye on the needs of national security and domestic funding to protect the sovereignty of Egypt over its canal.

The feasibility study of the canal project is impressive: doubling Egypt’s revenues from transit fees through the canal and increasing its share of profits from services for global maritime trade. However, we still need to understand that Egyptian industry is the best way to benefit from this project – developing both flanks of the canal, comprehensive economic progress and shedding poverty and destitution.

The Suez Canal can receive all giant vessels as long as they are empty or partially loaded – the size of their keels when fully loaded is deeper than the canal itself. Without deepening the canal and its branches, 65 percent of crude oil tankers, 94 percent of dry bulk carriers and 100 percent of container carriers cannot pass through when loaded at full capacity.

At the same time, the current course of the channel only allows vessels to pass in one direction in the single lane zone. Widening 75 percent of the canal will reduce the waiting and transit time for vessels and improve the economics of operating ships, thereby attracting global maritime lines that do not use the Suez Canal and doubling revenues and rates of transit.