The New Suez Canal extends along 35km parallel with the core Suez Canal, and originated as a parallel branch coming out of the main canal.
The new canal was established to increase Egypt’s national income of hard currency, and to achieve a greater proportion of ships indouble transit along the waterway. Additionally to this, the new waterway will reduce waiting times, and thereforemeet the anticipated increase in the volume of trade exchange.
The cost of the new canal amounted to $8bn, withthe government expectingto increase Suez Canal revenues by 259% in 2023 to $13,226bn annually, compared to the current revenue of $5.3bn.
According to the New Suez Canal’sofficial website, the absorptive capacity will be 97 recorded vessels per day in 2023, instead of 49 ships per day in 2014. In addition, the new canal will enablethe transit of direct non-stop for 45 vessels in both directions.
Constructing the new canal took 12 months,included the dry digging, dredging and expanding and deepening the current branches to a depth of 24 metres.
August 2014
5 August – President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi declared the start of digging the new Suez Canal at a ceremony located atthe first point of drilling in the new canal location.
11 August -3,000trucks and 7,500 new workers began digging the Suez Canal.
21August -Water appeared during the digging of the Suez Canal.
September 2014
4September – The government announced they were putting up investment certificates to finance theNew Suez Canal project process. The term of the certificates of five years, with yearly interest rate of 12% , paid every three months for EGP 1,000 certificate and higher.
21 September – Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Governor HishamRamezannouncedthe official toll for the sale of the new Suez Canal investment certificates amounted to EGP 64bn. Individuals bought 82% of the certificates,and only 12% by companies and institutions.
End of September – The SCA declared the end of 25% of dry drilling in theNew Suez Canal.
October 2014
9October -The dredging work achieved 400 metres in thesouthern entrance of the canal.
19 October -The Egyptian government announced that it has signed contracts with the winners alliances for dredging work in the New Suez Canal, which includes US,Emirati, Dutch and Belgian companies.
30October -Dry drilling in the New Suez Canal project amounted to approximately85m cubic metres of sand, after 84 days after the project inauguration, accounting for 47% of dry drillingworks, which totalled 180m cubic metres.
November 2014
21November -Canal drilling amountedto 122mcubic metres, with a rate of 68% of the planned initial plan in an increase of 18msqkm.
December 2014
18December -The number of companies operating the project reached 83,of which twocompaniesspecialised in roads, and 4,250 equipment and machines..The number of employees reached 25,000engineers, technicians and workers. The drilling rates amounted to 165mcubic metres of sand,or66% of the total digging work.
January 2015
19January -Apartial collapse of the sedimentation pond of the New Suez Canal in the Middle Easternarea in Ismailia city (one of Canal cities). SCA Chairman MohabMamish said the cause wasstrong water flow from the expulsion pipes of a dredger operating in canal.
February 2015
19February – 200mcubic metres were drilled, with a rate of 87% of the total drilling works estimated at 230mcubic metres of sand.
March 2015
19March – 215m cubic metres of soilwere lifted, or93.5% of the total planneddry drilling work.
April 2015
16April – 226mcubic metresdrilled(98.3% of the total planned amount), through 37 dredgers, which is considered the large dredging process in the world.
May 2015
28May -The dredgers working in the New Suez Canal project lifted 197.184m cubic metres of wetsand, or 76.43%.
June 2015
5June – Mamish announced the collection ofdonations for the opening ceremony of the canal.
8June – SCA declared bank account No. 6\8\2015 to accept voluntary contributions to finance the opening ceremony.
18June -Thedigging of 250m cubic metres of dry digging works finished, with implementation rate of 100% of the new canal.
26June -Over 113 private companiesfinished their work on finishing the new waterway. Mamishdeclared that SCA has started establishing 460 fish farming ponds, out of a total of 3,828 ponds. He added that taking these farms in production should coincide with the opening of the new Suez Canal on 6 August.
July 2015
25July – The first operating experiments began through crossing three ships in the new Suez Canal.Aplsouth ship crossed the new channel from the southern entrance inDeversoirarea coming from Jeddah on its way to Port Said. The second was a Singaporeanshipping container of 95 tonnes coming from the USon its way to Luxembourg. In addition to this, theBahraini container shipMayssancrossed the new canal coming from Jeddah on its way to Italy.
29July – finishing all work in the new Suez Canal.
August2015
6 August-The official opening of the New Suez Canal, in the presence of international delegations and state officials.
