No superfluous luxury: the Suez Canal will be widened and deepened

The Suez Canal Authority has ad.

Wider, deeper, double

On Saturday, the implementation of the plans was launched urgently, which had been on hold for some time. The part of the dual-channel navigation channel will be extended by 10 kilometers.

In addition, the canal will be wider and deeper over a length of 30 kilometers. In width, 40 meters will be added and the channel will be 2.4 meters deeper.

Blockage of the vessel

Egyptian President Al-Sisi demanded that the work begin immediately and be completed as soon as possible. It is not yet clear exactly when this will be the case.

It’s no surprise that the job needs to be done faster. At the end of March, the giant container ship Ever Given blocked the canal for six days. As a result, no ship could pass in either direction.

It costs the Egyptian treasury a lot of money. Every day that there was no navigation, the Channel Authority lost around 12 million euros in toll revenue.

The ship remains moored

The ship is now anchored in one of the canal lakes. He will stay there until the Japanese shipping company and the Canal Authority agree on compensation.

The Egyptian authorities want to receive 493 million euros in royalties from the shipping company. Including excavation, dredging and towing costs incurred.

It is also possible that half of the compensation claimed would consist of reputational damage compensation.

Total damage in billions

All of this is insignificant compared to the total costs of the blockade. The blockage can have before 5 to 8 billion euros in damage because the deliveries arrived too late, calculated the insurer Allianz.