First Cargo Ships Take Trial-Run Through New Suez Canal

By Yusri Mohamed

ISMAILIA, Egypt, July 25 (Reuters) – The first cargo ships handed via Egypt’s New Suez Canal on Saturday in a test-run earlier than it opens subsequent month, state media reported, 11 months after the military started developing the $8 billion canal alongside the prevailing 145-year-old Suez Canal.

The new waterway, which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hopes will assist develop commerce alongside the quickest transport route between Europe and Asia, will likely be formally inaugurated on Aug. 6.

Sisi needs the canal to grow to be a logo of nationwide delight and to assist fight Egypt’s double-digit unemployment. The previous Suez Canal is already a significant supply of onerous foreign money for Egypt, which has seen tourism and international funding drain away within the years of turmoil since a 2011 rebellion.

Three container ships crossed the brand new waterway, state information company MENA reported. One was an American ship heading to Egypt’s Port Said from Saudi Arabia, one other was a Danish ship crusing to the United States from Singapore, and a Bahraini ship going to Italy from Saudi Arabia.

The train came about amid tight safety. An insurgency primarily based within the Sinai Peninsula, which borders on the Suez Canal, has killed a whole lot of troopers and police since 2013. State tv mentioned there have been helicopters circling above and confirmed naval vessels escorting the ships.

Mohab Mameesh, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority overseer of the mission, informed state tv that this test-run had been successful and that extra would observe.

At a later information convention, Mameesh mentioned development of one other canal close to the East Port Said port on the Mediterranean Sea would start as quickly because the New Suez Canal had been inaugurated.

A senior Suez Canal Authority supply informed Reuters that the canal is anticipated to price round $60 million and will likely be 9.5 kilometers (6 miles) lengthy, 18.5 meters deep, and 250 meters large.

It will take round seven months to construct, the supply mentioned, talking on situation of anonymity.

The current canal earns Egypt round $5 billion per 12 months. The New Suez Canal, which is able to enable two-way site visitors of bigger ships, is meant to extend revenues by 2023 to $15 billion.

It also needs to scale back navigation time for ships to 11 hours from about 22 hours, Mameesh mentioned final month, making it the quickest such waterway on the planet.

The authorities additionally plans to construct a global industrial and logistics hub close by that it hopes will ultimately make up a few third of the Egyptian financial system. (Additional reporting by Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Writing by Ahmed Aboulenein; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)