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Join on Telegram Rabat – Since the late March incident in the Suez Canal, the authority responsible for the trade route has begun dredging to expand the canal near where the blockage occurred.
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) announced on Saturday that it would widen the canal by 40 meters between the city of Suez and the Great Bitter Lake to the north. The project will also deepen the canal by 20 to 22 meters. Nearly 50 ships pass through the Suez Canal every day and an expansion would permit two way traffic in one section and more ships to pass through overall.
On March 23, the “Ever Given,” a 220,000 ton container ship, miscalculated its approach into a narrow portion of the canal and disrupted global trade routes until March 29. Experts stated that the six day blockage would have a ripple effect causing disruption for months.
Head of Consumer Research at ParcelHero, David Jinks, said that the incident held up nearly €8.2 billion in goods daily and cost global trade over €5 billion in total. The Suez Canal serves as the primary shipping lane between East and West Asia and Europe.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi ordered the SCA to “immediately start implementing the proposed development plan and put in place a timetable for completion as soon as possible.”
The Ever Given serves as a prime example of the need for an expansion project as many other shipping companies have described the canal’s narrow passageways as difficult to navigate. Currently, the SCA has detained the Ever Given and demands that its Japanese owner Shoei Kisen Kaisha must pay $916 million for damage and salvage costs.
