Suez Canal Pacts with SCCT-Maersk
Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Vice Admiral Mohab Mamish, signed a settlement agreement with the Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT-Maersk), says Daily News Egypt.
Egypt is also planing to complete a side channel in East Port Said, near the Suez Canal.
The agreement came at the behest of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to resolve outstanding matters with the company, in order to begin the development of East Port Said Port within the general outline of the canal development project.
SCCT-Maersk has been working in the East Port Said Port at the Maritime Training and Simulation Centre in Ismailia. The agreement provides for General Authority and Suez Canal Economic Zone to take back area of 225,000sqm for benefit of national economy.
In exchange, the Egyptian government will establish the side-channel at the entrance to the northern side of the canal in Port Said, which has already begun to facilitate the entry of giant ships to the East Port Said Port directly without entering the main stream of the channel.
The side channel in East Port Said would speed up shipping and allow ships direct entry into the port by the end of June 2016, Mohab Memish, head of the Suez Canal Authority, said.
The new channel will cost $36 million, of which $7.5 million will be financed by SCCT, Memish said. SCCT is 55 percent owned by APM Terminals, part of Maersk Group.
"We are building the side channel which will allow the ships to enter from open waters directly into East Port Said," said Memish at a news conference in Ismailiya. Currently vessels that come through East Port Said have to be coordinated with the Suez Canal convoy.
