World News
CSCL: Widened Suez Canal Will Save Time and Money
Once upgrades are finished, the newly widened Suez Canal will save both "time and money" for China Shipping Container Lines (CSCL), Chinese state media reports.
The Suez Canal's narrowness does not allow large ships to cross both directions, so free flowing two-way traffic is not currently possible.
However the changes are expected to decrease ship waiting times by 40 percent - from 11 hours to 3.
Construction for the new Suez Canal began last year, and is expected to finish one month ahead of schedule in July 2015.
"This saves time, fuel consumption and ship operating costs and gives us some flexibility in managing capacity," said Qin Haipin, liner manager of CSCL in Egypt.
According to Zhou Chenwei, captain of CSCL's Indian Ocean, the widened waterway is expected to generate cost savings of $60,00-$70,000 per ship.
He added that Chinese ships account for a large portion of the traffic that the canal sees, which means that the upgrades will have a meaningful impact towards China's "One Belt, One Road" strategy.
The strategy aims to establish new trade routes linking Asia, Europe and Africa.
"Egypt is a key player in implementing the strategy," said Zhou.
"The Suez Canal will also play a key role to make the strategy a reality."
Last year, it was also reported that the Suez Canal is increasing its share of the Asia-U.S. East Coast route as more and more ships choose the Suez route over the historically more common route through the Panama Canal.
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| VLSFO | MGO | |||
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| $/mt | +/- | $/mt | +/- | |
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