EMEA News
New Suez Canal Complete, Revenues Expected to Triple by 2023
The Suez Canal Authority says that, after 11 months of work, Egypt has completed the new Suez Canal, which will be officially unveiled on August 6, Reuters reports.
By allowing full two-way traffic, the new canal will allow vessels to transit the canal in 11 hours, compared to 22 hours before, and is expected to boost revenues from the canal from $5 billion per year to $15 billion per year by 2023.
"We have finished work on time and even before the specified time," said retired Admiral Mohab Mameesh, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority.
"More ships will be able to use the canal and most importantly for us the time that ships are taking to get through the canal is being reduced.”
The first cargo ships reportedly passed through canal in a test-run last week.
The Egyptian government says it is also planning to develop an international industrial and logistics centre near the Suez Canal, which it expects to eventually make up approximately a third of the country’s economy.
Mameesh also said that work on a new side channel to connect East Port Said to the Mediterranean would begin on August 7, 2015.
In May, it was reported that the newly widened Suez Canal would decrease ship waiting times by 40 percent from 11 hours to three.
