Suez Canal News

Glamox won a contract from Alexandria Shipyard in Egypt to light two new salvage tugs being built for the Suez Canal Authority. The two new tugs will sport Glamox LED floodlights and searchlights, helping to enable the vessels to work around the clock, as well as navigation lights, and indoor lighting. The design specification and equipment for the powerful tugs are provided by Kongsberg Maritime.The 71.6m vessels will be built to Kongsberg’s UT 722 CDT design, and each will be equipped with approximately 780 marine-certified lights from Glamox.

Egypt's Suez Canal Authority said on Sunday it was closely monitoring the impact of tensions in the Red Sea after recent attacks by Yemen's Houthis on vessels in the southern part of the basin.Two major freight firms, MSC and CMA CGM, said on Saturday they would avoid the Suez Canal as Houthi militants stepped up their assaults.The authority is "closely following the consequences of current tensions," the body's chairman, Osama Rabie, said in a statement. Maritime traffic in the canal was currently normal…

C2X has signed a comprehensive framework agreement to accelerate the large scale production of green methanol in Egypt.The agreement relates to projects strategically located close to the Suez Canal and was signed with the General Authority for Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE), the Egyptian New and Renewable Energy Authority, the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company, and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt for Investment and Development.C2X is aiming to build, own, and operate assets to produce green methanol at scale, with A.P. Moller Holding as majority owner and A.P.

Normal traffic is expected to resume through the Suez Canal within hours, the head of the canal authority said on Wednesday, following the collision of two vessels."Slight contact" was made after LNG carrier BW Lesmes made a sudden stop due to a technical failure that coincided with a strong current that drove oil tanker Burri towards it, authority chairman Osama Rabie said.The canal authority responded by sending tugboats to move both ships, he said.Singapore-flagged BW Lesmes was successfully towed outside of the waterway…

The Panama Maritime Authority has submitted its accident investigation report on the Ever Given to the IMO which includes the conclusion that “the Captain has command of the ship at all times.”On 23 March 2021, the Suez Canal was blocked for six days after the grounding of Ever Given between March 23 and March 29, 2021. The 20,000 TEU container vessel was struck by strong winds and ended up wedged across the waterway with its bow and stern stuck in the canal banks, blocking all traffic until it could be freed.A critical time period in the incident occurred at about 07:38 HRS / LT.

The Suez Canal Authority has announced rebates for LNG carriers effective from July 1, 2023.Circular no. (7/2017) concerning LNG carriers (laden/ballast) has been amended as follows:LNG carriers (laden/ballast) operating between the American Gulf (and ports south) and areas in Asia will be granted rebates:a) Arabian Gulf ports (ports within the Arabian Gulf starting from Sur port, Oman) and eastern ports up to Cochin in India will be granted a rebate of 30% off normal Suez Canal…

Minerva Bunkering has completed its first ten bunker deliveries in Egypt, including to Hafnia’s MV Hafnia Azurite and Cargill Ocean Transportation’s MV Gat Feeling.  Minerva is licensed to operate in Suez Canal waiting anchorages and 12 Egyptian ports, including East and West Port Said, Alexandria, Damietta, Suez, and Sokhna.

Tugboats refloated a large ship that had been stranded for several hours in the Suez Canal on Thursday, and sources said shipping traffic through one of the world's busiest waterways had returned to normal.Two canal sources said traffic was back to normal by around 11:00 am local time (0800 GMT), around six hours after the incident began and three-and-a-half hours after the vessel was refloated.Shipping agent Leth Agencies identified the ship as the 190 meter (623 foot) Xin Hai Tong 23…

A ship has grounded in the Suez Canal, shipping agent Leth Agencies said early on Thursday.Suez Canal tugboats are trying to refloat the vessel, named Xin Hai Tong 23, the company said.There was no immediate comment from Canal authorities."M/V XIN HAI TONG 23 has grounded in the Suez Canal at KM 159/0400 hrs," Leth Agencies said in a tweet, adding it was "leaving behind 4 vessels from the early convoy in addition to the ordinary group which was planned to enter Suez Canal at about 0600 hrs."The Marine Traffic ship tracker and Refinitiv data showed the ship, which sails under the Hong Kong flag, as "not under command" near the southern end of the canal, positioned at an angle next to the canal's eastern side.(Reporting by Hatem Maher and Ahmed Tolba; writing by Nafisa Eltahir, Editing by Mu

Shipping traffic in the Suez Canal was proceeding normally on Monday after tugs towed a cargo vessel that broke down during its passage through the waterway, the Canal Authority said.The breakdown was expected to cause only minor delays, with convoys of ships resuming regular transit by 11:00 local time (09:00 GMT), shipping agent Leth said.The M/V Glory, which was sailing to China, suffered a technical fault when it was 38km into its passage southward through the canal, before being towed by four tugs to a repair area…

Egypt's Suez Canal has extended rebates on canal tolls for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers from July until the end of the year, the canal authority said in circulars published on its website.LPG tankers operating between the American Gulf and ports west of India, on the Maldives islands and at Kochi will receive a rebate of 20% on the canal's normal tolls, according to a circular published on its website on Monday.Those operating from ports east of Kochi to Singapore will receive a rebate of 55%, and from Singapore ports east will have a rebate of 75%.LNG

A project to expand parts of the Suez Canal is expected to be completed after two years of work in July 2023, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said on Sunday.The SCA announced accelerated plans to extend a second channel of the canal and to enlarge an existing channel after the Ever Given container ship ran aground and blocked the waterway for six days last year."The project will be completed in 24 months. We started in July 2021 and God willing we will finish in July 2023…

Egypt plans to raise fees by 6% on ships transiting the Suez Canal in 2022, the canal authority's chairman Osama Rabie said on Thursday.Tankers transporting liquefied natural gas and tourist cruise ships will be excluded from the fee hike, Rabie added. (Reporting by Momen Saeed Atallah; Writing by Shakeel Ahmad; Editing by Jan Harvey)

Egypt's Suez Canal earned revenue of $3 billion in the first six months of 2021, up 8.8% compared with the same period last year, Osama Rabie, the canal authority chairman, said on Sunday.The canal authority will receive a tug boat with a pulling capacity of about 75 tonnes as part of a settlement to release the container ship Ever Given, which blocked traffic at the waterway for six days in March, Rabie told a private TV channel. (Reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Mahmoud Mourad; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

Marine traffic slowed in the Suez Canal on Tuesday as oil tanker M/T Rumford appeared to face difficulties in the south of the canal, shipping websites MarineTraffic and TankerTrackers said.A trade source said that the canal notified companies that the M/T Rumford faced engine trouble in the canal and that it had sent tug boats Tim Hope and Mosaed 3 to its aid.TankersTracker said on Twitter that the vessel had run into difficulty but is finally heading north again.The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) told Reuters the issue had only lasted about 10 minutes and "was fixed".

All ships stranded by the grounding of the giant container ship Ever Given in the Suez Canal in March had passed through the canal by Saturday, ending the backlog that built up during the blockage, the canal authority said.The last 61 ships, out of 422 ships that were queuing when the vessel was dislodged on Monday, passed through the vital trade artery on Saturday, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said.International supply chains were thrown into disarray when the 400-metre-long (430-yard) Ever Given ran aground in the canal on March 23…

Egypt's Suez Canal must move quickly to upgrade its technical infrastructure if it is to avoid future shipping disruption, shipping industry sources said, as the major trade route tries to bounce back from a costly six-day closure.International supply chains were thrown into disarray on March 23 when the 400-meter-long (430-yard) container ship Ever Given ran aground in the canal, with specialist rescue teams taking almost a week to free her after extensive dredging and repeated tugging operations.Egypt will get two new tugboats…

News about the partial refloating of the giant container ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal is good, but completing the operation would not be a "piece of cake", Boskalis CEO Peter Berdowski told Dutch public radio on Monday.Boskalis is the parent company of Smit Salvage, which has assisted in efforts to dislodge the ship.A new tug would arrive and water would be injected under the ship's bow to help free it, but if those efforts did not work containers might have to be removed, Berdowski said.

Shoei Kisen, the Japanese owner of the container ship blocking the Suez Canal, said it aims to free the ship "tomorrow night Japan time", the Nikkei reported on Friday.The 400-meter Ever Given, leased by Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp, is blocking transit through one of the world's busiest shipping channels for oil and grain and other trade linking Asia and Europe.A spokeswoman for the owner in Japan said that the refloating work was ongoing but that the company did not yet know when the effort would succeed."We don't have an estimate for when the work will succeed," she said.

Today the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) and Royal IHC (IHC) launched cutter suction dredger (CSD) Hussein Tantawy at IHC’s shipyard in The Netherlands.Hussein Tantawy is one of two vessels currently under construction at IHC for SCA. Its sister vessel, Mohab Mameesh, was launched in May and is expected to go on sea trials at the end of this year. They are among the largest vessels of their kind and were both specifically designed by IHC in close cooperation with SCA.Like Mohab Mameesh…

A massive container ship blocking Egypt's Suez Canal for nearly a week has been partially refloated, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said on Monday, raising hopes the busy waterway will soon be reopened for a huge backlog of ships.The 400-meter (430-yard) long Ever Given became jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal in high winds early last Tuesday, halting shipping traffic on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.After further dredging and excavation over the weekend…

The Suez Canal temporarily suspended traffic on Thursday as efforts to dislodge a 400 m (430 yard) long container vessel that has blocked the waterway continued for a third day, with eight tugs working to straighten the ship.The Ever Given vessel, almost as long as the Empire State Building is high, ran aground diagonally across the single-lane stretch of the southern canal on Tuesday morning after losing the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm.It is now blocking transit in both directions through one of the world's busiest shipping channels for goods…