Suez Canal ongoing development, limitless ambition

Largest number of ships transiting the canal

Canal achieves unprecedented increase of roughly 35% over previous years

Gov’t keen to maximise Authority’s assets

Since its digging 152 years ago, the Suez Canal (SC) has been playing a robust role in Egypt’s modern history, and representing an important strategic and economic artery for the Egyptian State since its nationalisation 67 years ago. Because of it, wars erupted and countries sought to control it, but Egypt’s military and economic power prevented their schemes, and kept the canal a safe crossing under Egyptian sovereignty.

Since its nationalisation, more than 31 billion tons of goods passed through the canal, achieving more than $143 billion revenues. Since last year, it has been attaining unprecedented numbers, amounting to $9.4 billion in the fiscal year 2022/2023, which is the largest income achieved by the canal in its history.

In his interview with the Information and Decision Support Centre (IDSC), General Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), explained the reasons for this achievement, as the canal achieved an unprecedented increase of roughly 35% over previous years. Among these reasons is the digging of new Suez Canal, in addition to the services provided to the ships passing through the canal, such as reducing the transit time to only 11 hours, and increasing the canal’s ability to cross a larger number of ships, from 40 ships per day to almost 120 ships with large loads.

With regard to the Evergreen incident, there were more than 400 ships waiting to pass, and because of the development works, the new canal helped in their crossing fleetly.

Rabie explained that the new services provided by the SCA are aimed at attracting new customers to the canal. These services include supplying ships, collecting waste and changing crews, which we launched during the Covid-19 pandemic and we still provide, in addition to other services such as ambulance service, along with repair and maintenance services within the SCA’s arsenals in Suez and Port Said.

The SCA provides new services annually, up to 5 services, and ships usually get about 20 services other than the traffic service from crossings around the world, said Rabei.

The SCA has an unexampled simulation centre, in which the employees are trained on all the tasks assigned to them, whereas it puts them in a work atmosphere similar to the real one so as to raise their technical capabilities. It is not limited to training only; however, it sends its employees for training abroad. They are also trained to overcome the risks, crises and accidents that the world is witnessing at other crossings so that they can help if they occur anywhere.

After assuming the presidency of SCA, General Rabie devised an integrated strategy for the SCA development and presented it to President Abdel Fatah El Sisi, which included several axes, most notably:

Navigational Stream Development

It included the expansion and construction of garages used by ships to repair their malfunctions without affecting the passage of ships. 10 garages have been built so far within the two channels.

The development works also included placing caissons and cleats on the two banks of the canal for ships experiencing minor malfunctions to be repaired along the navigational stream. Moreover, the depth of the canal was increased to become 24 meters that are periodically and continuously checked to ensure that it is not affected by dredging works that may occur from the sides.

The development of the canal’s southern part was most difficult, whereas this 30-kilometre part has curved, narrow paths, along with its strong current, and the hard rocky bottom. Therefore, it has not witnessed any development works since 1990. After the arrival of the two dredgers, Hussein Tantawy and Mohab Mameesh, however, work began on developing it, as they are working with unprecedented capabilities – 3600 dredging capacity per hour.

The width of this part from the east has been already expanded and its depth reached 27 m, which has improved the navigation by more than 28%.

As for the development of the bitter lakes, 10 km of these lakes were developed through doubling their width to 500 metres instead of 250, contributing to raising the capabilities of the canal to receive about 8 ships in addition to its previous capabilities.

The SCA spends on all its projects from its declared budget, bearing the State no additional burdens. On top of that, it spends on those projects in Egyptian pounds, while the return is always in foreign currency, said Rabei.

According to President Sisi’s directives, the development work did not affect the navigation movement, whereas the work was done while ships were halting in the canal.

The SCA chairman, then, talked about the four development axes concerning the canal’s naval fleet, saying: “We developed the marine fleet after we obtained the approval of the president by adding 28 new tugs in addition to the existing 35 locomotives”.

The towing capacity of the new tugs was about 190 tons, which was not available before, and a large number of them entered service, most of which were established within the Authority and through private sector companies, except for 6 tugs, 3 of which are being built in Egypt in co-operation with a Chinese company, while the Chinese company is building three of them in China.

He pointed out that the president’s directives were clear that all the tugs, dredges, and others working in the shipping channel should be at the highest level and be suitable for Egypt and the world.

Rabie talked about the development of SCA, saying that we have 7 companies affiliated with the Authority, including companies that have been in existence for 152 years, namely, since the establishment of the canal, in addition to companies that were later established since its nationalisation.

We have maximised the added value of them by raising their capacity and developing their performance in providing services to ships passing through the canal, in addition to their participation in development projects in various governorates of Egypt. We also participate in Decent Life Initiative’s projects along with other development projects.

Digital transformation saved time for ships transiting the Canal

Thereafter, the SCA chairman touched on the Authority’s digital transformation since 2021, which helped to finish work in record time, such as booking the dates of the passage of ships, which solely has saved about 4 days for ships passing through the canal, as well as booking maintenance appointments, ambulance services and changing guides. In addition, the digitisation helped to develop strict plans for towing operations, and implement rescue plans quickly and efficiently.

Ever Given incident revealed Egypt’s true potential

Giving the Ever Given incident a different look, Rabie revealed that the rescue work was carried out by Egyptian people, and we did not receive any help from a foreign entity, despite the offers made to SCA from many countries, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE that offered immediate assistance. But we had enough capabilities to accomplish it.

Before the incident, everyone was talking about alternatives to the canal, but the incident revealed that the Suez Canal has no alternative and that Egypt has capabilities and minds that can confront the most difficult difficulties, even if they seem impossible to be solved.

The idea of a young engineer was worth listening to, and using dredgers for the first time in the history of ship rescue. The crisis ended in less than a week, and according to international experts, it was expected to take about 6 months.

Here, the capabilities of Egypt and the importance of the Suez Canal appeared, said General Osama Rabie, and the world watched everything instantly in a live broadcast.

As such, Rabei touched on another crisis, which is the Covid-19 that paralysed the whole world. He revealed that the authority achieved an increase in the number of transiting ships passing of about 8%, which dazzled the world that witnessed a recession and a decline in world trade, and some crossings incurred great losses.

The canal attracted new customers from the American East Coast and Western Europe, and some of them became permanent customers. We provided them with discounts ranging from 17 to 75% to pass through the canal. We developed unconventional solutions to deal with the crisis, such as remote guidance, and this has never happened before.

He added that all the work of SCA is available for everyone, and that the Authority applies the rules of governance and transparency, explaining that the budget of the Authority and its work are subject to the control of the Central Auditing Organization, the Ministry of Finance and the House of Representatives.

At the end of his interview, the SCA Chairman confirmed that everyone who works, since 1956, in the canal is Egyptian, and thanks to the Armed Forces, the canal is 100% secure.