New Suez Canal ... Coming Soon!

Overview

The Suez Canal is the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, as it acts as an alternative to Cape of Good Hope route. The new works increase trade alongside the canal. The enlarged canal will allow ships to sail in both directions at the same time over much of the canal's length. This is expected to decrease waiting hours from 11 to 3 hours for most ships. and to double the capacity of the Suez Canal from 49 to 97 ships a day.

The New Suez Canal works are expected to be 72 km (45 mi) long – this will involve 35 km (22 mi) of dry digging, and 37 km (23 mi) of "expansion and deep digging", whereas the whole canal is 164 kilometers (102 mi) long. Six new tunnels for cars and trains are also planned to end the isolation of the Sinai peninsula, connecting it better to the Egyptian heartland. As of 2015, there was only a single tunnel under the Canal, the Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel that connects Suez with the Sinai.

The construction of the new canal itself was initially scheduled to take five years. It was then first reduced to three years and finally ordered by President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to be completed in one year only.

Benefits and risks

The chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, Vice-Admiral Mohab Mamish, announced that the revenues from the Suez Canal would jump from 5 billion dollars to 12.5 billion dollars annually. There are major risks to the economic viability of large-scale infrastructure projects such as the New Suez Canal. These include delays during construction, cost overruns, and lower than expected revenues. Due to hasty planning, technical difficulties initially arose, such as the flooding of the new canal through seepage from the existing canal. However, with the passing of the first foreign ship through the new canal, it is clear that major project delays have been avoided, and the principal technical hurdles have been overcome. Another potential issue is that the official estimate of traffic doubling in the first year of the canal's operation is vastly exaggerated, according to the Egyptian trade expert Dr. Omar el-Shenety. Higher traffic projections could be affected by a slump in global trade or by increased fees.

Cost and funding

The expansion of the canal and the tunnels are expected to cost around 60 billion Egyptian pounds (US$8.4 billion). 30 billion Egyptian pounds will be for digging the new canal and the other 30 billion will be for the 6 new tunnels. President el-Sisi refused to allow foreign investors to invest in the project, but rather he urged Egyptians to participate in funding the project. Initially, the project was to be financed through a stock market IPO, allowing partial private ownership of the project. However, the government quickly changed its financing strategy, relying on interest-bearing investment certificates that do not confer any ownership rights to investors. Resident Egyptian citizens were asked to buy certificates worth 10, 100 or 1000 Egyptian pounds. The smallest investment certificates would allow students to invest in the project. According to a law signed by President el-Sisi on September 1, the four banks of Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt, Banque du Caire and the Suez Canal Bank sold the 5-year non-transferable certificates issued by the Suez Canal Authority with a 12 percent interest, about 1.5 percent higher than similar certificates issued by Egyptian banks. Interest on the 1000-pound certificates, which account for the bulk of sales revenues, will be paid quarterly. Interest on smaller denominations will be paid out after five years. Investors are allowed to borrow from the banks up to 90 percent of the funds needed to buy the certificates, which was done to the tune of 4 billion pounds, or about 6 percent of the total. 82 percent of the certificates were sold to individuals. Interest from the certificates is not taxable. To the surprise of Central Bank Governor Hisham Ramez, investment certificates were sold within only eight working days and the Central Bank stopped issuing new certificates afterwards. The project will reduce the availability of government revenues for other expenditures, as the Ministry of Finance guarantees the certificates and sets aside funds in a special account at the Central Bank to pay quarterly interest of 1.9 billion pounds. 

القناة الجديدة

بعد نحو عام من أعمال الحفر والتجريف والإكساء أصبحت قناة السويس الجديدة في مصر جاهزة لاستقبال السفن التجارية. وتمتد القناة الجديدة على طول 35 كيلومترا في موازاة القناة الأساسية. 

أنشأت القناة الجديدة كفرع موازي يخرج من القناة الرئيسية عند الكيلومتر رقم 60 ويصب فيها مجددا في الكيلومتر رقم 95، لتتشكل بذلك جزيرة بين القناتين يخطط أن تضم أيضا مجموعة من المشاريع العمرانية والاستثمارية الجديدة التي تضيف فرص عمل جديدة للشباب المصري.

وتتركز الأهداف الأساسية لقناة السويس الجديدة على زيادة الدخل القومي المصري من العملة الصعبة، وتحقيق أكبر نسبة من العبور المزدوج للسفن على طول المجرى الملاحي، وتقليل زمن الانتظار وبالتالي تلبية الزيادة المتوقعة في حجم التبادل التجاري.

وتتوقع الحكومة المصرية زيادة عائدات قناة السويس بنسبة 259 بالمئة عام 2023 ليكون 13.226 مليار دولار مقارنة بالعائد الحالي 5.3 مليار دولار.

وحسب الموقع الرسمي لقناة السويس الجديدة، فإن القدرة الاستيعابية ستكون 97 سفينة قياسية في اليوم عام 2023 بدلا من 49 سفينة يوميا عام 2014. بالإضافة إلى أنها ستمكن السفن من العبور المباشر دون توقف لـ 45 سفينة في كلا الاتجاهين.

كما تأمل الحكومة المصرية من خلال هذا المشروع إلى تعظيم القدرات التنافسية للقناة وتمييزها عن القنوات المماثلة ورفع درجة التصنيف العالمي للمجرى الملاحي نتيجة زيادة معدلات الأمان الملاحي أثناء مرور السفن.

بلغت مدة تنفيذ مشروع القناة الجديدة 12 شهرا، شملت أعمال الحفر على الناشف والتكسية والتجريف وتوسيع وتعميق التفريعات الحالية لعمق 24 متر ليسمح لعبور سفن حتى غاطس 66 قدم.

وستفتتح قناة السويس الجديدة للعمل بشكل رسمي في السادس من أغسطس من عام 2015.