New Suez Canal to be inaugurated on 6 August 2015
The New Suez Canal will double the transit capacity until 2023 and allow for a faster and more fluid sailing of the CMA CGM vessels
The New Suez Canal will be inaugurated on August 6th by the President of Egypt Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, and 5,000 distinguished guests – public and private personalities, institutions and international companies such as the CMA CGM Group.
The New Suez Canal will double the transit capacity by 2023 and enable a more rapid and fluid sailing for the CMA CGM Group’s vessels. As the longest canal in the world, with 193 km length and 345 m width, the Suez Canal is crossed by about 20,000 vessels each year, or about 8 per cent of the world maritime traffic.
The works on the New Suez Canal took one year during which were achieved:
– The construction of a parallel route to the old Canal, with a length of 34 km
– The doubling of the canal’s width on 37 km.
With the New Suez Canal:
– The number of vessels sailing through the Canal will be doubled: from an average 49 vessels transiting daily through the canal today to 97 in 2023, in order to respond to the trade growth perspectives and to maritime carriers demand
– Transit times will be reduced from 18 to 11 hours for northbound convoys by
o Reducing vessels’ waits
o Enabling a continuous and simultaneous vessel sailing.
– Suez Canal competitiveness will be improved.
CMA CGM vessels sailed through the Canal 637 times in 2014. 11 of the Group’s services use the canal regularly, including the French Asia Line, CMA CGM emblematic line joining Europe, the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Asia. 700 of the Group’s vessels will cross the New Canal in 2015.
Nicolas Sartini, CMA CGM Group Senior Vice President Asia to Europe trades: “Traffic through the canal being more fluid and transit times shortened, our group will improve its clients’ offer and its service reliability”.
Source: oevz.com