As reported earlier this week by FreightWaves’ Kim Link-Willis in American Shipper, the Evergreen container ship Ever Given is stuck sideways in the Suez Canal – blocking both northbound and southbound traffic.
The ultra-large container ship has a carrying capacity of 20,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and was traveling from Yantian, China, to the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands when it ran aground on Tuesday morning, March 23.
This is not the first time the canal has been blocked during its history. From June 1967 to June 1975 the canal was intentionally blocked by the Egyptian military (using ships and naval mines) in response to the Israeli seizure of the Sinai Peninsula during the Six-Day War.
This FreightWaves Classics article provides an overview of the canal’s history and operations.
The basics
The Suez Canal is a sea-level waterway that runs north-south across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt. It connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. The canal separates the African continent from Asia, and it provides the shortest maritime route between Europe and the nations that border the Indian and western Pacific oceans.
It is one of the world’s most heavily used shipping lanes. According to the World Shipping Council, around 50 ships transit the canal daily, and the average transit time is 14 hours.
The canal is 120 miles long and runs between Port Said in the north and Suez in the south. There are dredged approach channels north of Port Said (into the Mediterranean Sea), and south of Suez.
To the west of the canal is the Nile River’s low-lying delta; to the east is the higher and arid Sinai Peninsula.
Ideas to construct a canal
The canal was not built along the shortest route across the isthmus, which is a distance of 75 miles. Instead, it utilizes several lakes that made construction easier: from north to south, Lake Manzala; Lake Timsah; and the Bitter Lakes – Great Bitter Lake and Little Bitter Lake. Unlike many other canals, the Suez Canal does not have any locks. However, although it has extensive straight lengths, the canal contains eight major bends.
The Egyptian civilization dates back 5,000 years, and the first canal in the area near where the present-day Suez Canal is located is estimated to have been excavated about 1850 BC, when an irrigation channel navigable at flood period was constructed into the Wadi Tumelat, a dry river valley east of the Nile delta. Known as the Canal of the Pharaohs, that original channel was extended by later Egyptians pharaohs and then by the Roman Empire. That canal was deliberately filled in for military reasons in 775 AD.
In the 15th century, Venetian traders, and then the French in the 17th and 18th centuries, speculated about a canal. Their interest was trade; a canal across the isthmus would allow ships to sail directly from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean. However, these speculations were never more than that.
Napoleon’s army occupied Egypt from 1798-1801. During that time the first survey was made across the isthmus. Napoleon’s chief engineer erroneously calculated that the level of the Red Sea was 33 feet above the level of the Mediterranean Sea, and therefore, that locks would be needed. His conclusion was used without question by others for canal project plans.
Canal planning studies were made again in 1834 and in 1846. Ferdinand de Lesseps received an Act of Concession from the viceroy of Egypt to construct a canal in 1854, and in 1856 a second act conferred on the Suez Canal Company the right to operate a maritime canal for 99 years after it was constructed.
Canal construction
Construction began in 1859; the Suez Canal Company estimated it would take six years to build the canal. Instead, it took 10 years due to the climate, a cholera epidemic in 1865 and labor issues.
An initial project was to cut a small canal from the Nile River delta along the Wadi Tumelat, with a southern branch to Suez and a northern branch to Port Said. Completed in 1863, this supplied drinking water in an otherwise arid area.
In the beginning, digging was done by hand with picks and baskets by Egyptians drafted as forced labor. Later, dredgers and steam shovels operated by European laborers were used. Dredging was cheaper than dry excavation, so the terrain was artificially flooded and dredged wherever possible. The canal was excavated through sand or alluvium except in a few areas where rock strata were found. Over 97 million cubic yards of sediments were excavated and/or dredged during construction.
The canal was completed in August 1869; its official opening (complete with an elaborate ceremony) was held on November 17.
Additional construction
When the canal first opened in 1869, it consisted of a channel barely 26 feet deep, 72 feet wide at the bottom, and 200 to 300 feet wide at its surface. So that ships could pass each other, passing bays were built every five to six miles.
Because the channel was narrow and difficult to maneuver, about 3,000 ships went aground between 1870 and 1884. The Suez Canal Company began to improve the canal in 1876 and they continued over the years and decades. By 1960, a number of projects had widened and deepened the canal; it was at least 179 feet wide at its narrowest point and was 33 feet deep along its banks and its channel had a depth of 40 feet at low tide. In addition, the existing passing bays were enlarged and new bays constructed. Bypasses were created in the Bitter Lakes and at Al-Ballāḥ; stone or cement cladding and steel pilings to protect the canal’s banks were completed in erosion-prone areas. In Lake Timsah, anchorages for tankers were deepened; new berths were excavated at Port Said to help group ships in convoys.
(Photo: myscienceschool.org)
Further enlargement/improvement plans made in 1964 were interrupted by the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The canal was deliberately blocked for military reasons and remained inoperative for eight years. The canal was reopened in June 1975; construction began again.
The government of Egypt completed a nearly $8.5 billion project to upgrade the canal and significantly increase its capacity; nearly 18 miles were added to its original length of 102 miles.
In August 2014, the Egyptian government began new construction projects to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass for 22 miles in order to shorten ship transit time in the canal. The expansion was planned to nearly double the capacity of the Suez Canal, from 49 to 97 ships per day. The project (named the “New Suez Canal”) cost $9 billion and was funded by interest-bearing investment certificates that were issued only to Egyptian entities and individuals. The expansion opened one year later, on August 6, 2015.
A few months later (February 24, 2016), the Suez Canal Authority officially opened the new side channel. Located at the northern side of the eastern Suez Canal extension, it serves the canal’s East Terminal for berthing/unberthing vessels from the terminal. The East Container Terminal is on the canal itself; prior to the construction of the new side channel it was not possible to berth or unberth vessels at the terminal while a convoy was running.
Financial issues and nationalization
When it was formed, the Suez Canal Company was incorporated as an Egyptian joint-stock company, but was headquartered in Paris. Great Britain was originally against the canal; despite Lesseps’ efforts for international participation, 52% of the shares were sold in France; of the remainder, 44% of the shares were owned by Egypt’s Saʾīd Pasha. Nonetheless, the first board of directors included representatives of 14 countries.
The British government’s opposition to the canal was simple to understand – a canal would disrupt the British Empire’s commercial and maritime supremacy. At that time, the British controlled both the route around the Cape of Good Hope (at the southern tip of Africa) and the overland route to India and the Far East. The British opposition lasted several years, despite the fact that the Suez Canal reduced the journey from the Arabian Sea to London, by approximately 5,500 miles.
During the construction of the Suez Canal, a number of major technical, political and financial problems occurred and were overcome. However, the final cost to construct the canal was more than twice the original estimate.
His own financial issues caused Egypt’s new viceroy (Ismāʾīl Pasha) to sell his holding in 1875. At the urging of Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, the viceroy’s shares were purchased by the British government.
Under the terms of the original agreement, Egypt was allocated 15% of the company’s net profits. Egypt relinquished that percentage at a later date, and after the sale of Ismāʿīl’s shares, was not even represented on the company’s board of directors until 1949. At that time it was reinstated as a board member and allocated 7% of the company’s gross profits. Concurrently, the company also agreed that 90% of new clerical positions and 80% of technical positions would be offered first to Egyptians; moreover the company would build hospitals, schools and other amenities for the local population.
The Suez Canal Company’s concession to operate the canal was scheduled to end in 1969. However, in 1956, the canal was nationalized by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser. The Egyptian government has had complete control of the canal through its Suez Canal Authority (SCA) ever since.
Impact on international trade and geopolitics
As its owners hoped, the canal had an immediate and dramatic effect on world trade. In particular, those European nations that had Mediterranean ports benefited economically from the Suez Canal; they now had much faster connections to Asia and East Africa than the northern and western European maritime trading nations such as Great Britain, the Netherlands or Germany. The nation that benefited the most was Austria-Hungary, which had participated in the planning and construction of the canal. The largest Austrian maritime trading company enjoyed a rapid expansion after the canal opened, as did the port city of Trieste, which was then an Austrian possession.
Negative effects of the canal include increased European colonization of Africa. The canal also was a contributing factor to the Panic of 1873 in Great Britain.
Political unrest in Egypt caused the British to invade in 1882 and take control of the country. The lead British representative was Evelyn Baring; he served in Egypt from 1883 to 1907. More than anyone, he was responsible for reorganizing and modernizing the Egyptian government. Using British troops, he suppressed rebellions and corruption, which led to increased canal traffic.
The British remained in Egypt, and defended the strategically important canal against a major attack by the Ottoman Empire in 1915, during World War I. Under terms of the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936, the United Kingdom retained control of the canal. The canal was strategically important again during World War II, and attempts by the Italians and Germans to capture it were defeated during the North Africa campaign. In 1951 Egypt repudiated the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty; in October 1954 Great Britain agreed to remove its troops. The withdrawal was completed in July 1956.
Canal operations
During 1870 (the canal’s first full year of operation), there were only 486 transits of the canal (fewer than two per day). By 1966 there were 21,250 transits (an average of 58 per day). Net tonnage increased from about 444,000 metric tons in 1870 to about 278.4 million metric tons in 1966. By the mid-1980s the number of daily transits had decreased slightly, but net annual tonnage had risen to about 355.6 million metric tons. In 2018 there were even fewer transits, but the ships had increased in size and cargo tonnage (net annual tonnage of about 1.14 billion metric tons.
The type of cargo has changed dramatically over the last 150 years. There has been a huge increase in Persian Gulf crude oil and petroleum shipments since 1950. In 1913, northbound oil traffic was 295,700 metric tons; in 1966 it was 168.7 million metric tons. During the eight-year closure of the canal, larger oil tankers were developed. The closure also led to the construction of the Sumed pipeline, which runs from Suez to Alexandria; it opened in 1977. Since the canal reopened in 1975 the size of new oil tankers has meant that the largest cannot use the canal. In addition, new sources of oil outside of the canal’s route (Algeria, Libya, Mexico, Nigeria, the North Sea, etc.) have reduced use of the canal to move international oil.
However, the shipment of dry cargoes, including grain, ores, and metals, has increased. More recently, container and roll-on/roll-off traffic has increased through the canal. Most of this cargo ends up at ports on the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf.
Major northbound cargoes are chiefly crude petroleum and petroleum products, coal, ores and metals. Primary southbound cargoes include cement, fertilizers, fabricated metals, cereals and empty (and smaller) oil tankers.
International status
The canal was built to serve and profit from international trade; however, its international status was undefined for decades. The major maritime powers (except Great Britain) signed the Convention of Constantinople in 1888. The convention stated that the canal should be open to ships of all nations in times of both peace and war. Additionally, the convention forbade acts of hostility in the canal’s waters and construction of fortifications on its banks. Great Britain signed the convention in 1904.
International use of the canal during wartime includes the denial of passage to Spanish warships during the Spanish-American War of 1898, passage for a squadron of the Russian navy during the 1905 Russo-Japanese War and for Italian vessels during Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia in 1935-36. While the canal was theoretically open to all during World War I and World War II, the naval and military superiority of the Allies denied use of the canal to Germany and the Axis powers.
There was an armistice between Israel and its Arab opponents in 1949; however, Egypt denied use of the canal to Israel and to all ships trading with Israel. The first of two canal closings occurred during the Suez Crisis of 1956-57, after Israel attacked Egyptian forces. French and British troops occupied part of the canal zone. A number of ships were trapped in the canal during that blockade and could not leave until the canal’s north end was reopened in January 1957.
The second closing was due to the Arab-Israeli war in 1967; the canal was closed until 1975.
In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, the canal was the scene of a major crossing by the Egyptian army into the Israeli-occupied Sinai and a counter-crossing by the Israeli army into Egypt. Nearly 50 years later, wreckage from this conflict remains visible along the canal’s edges.
Following the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel in 1979, all ships had access to the waterway.
The canal has played an important strategic role as a naval shortcut and choke-point. Obviously, nations with coastlines and naval bases on both the Mediterranean and Red seas (Egypt and Israel) have a particular interest in the Suez Canal.
(Photo: Flickr/kees torn CC BU-SA 2.0)
Conclusion
The Suez Canal has been important in a number of ways since it was first opened – financially, militarily, in global trade, geopolitically, etc. It is considered a key chokepoint in the global flow of oil and other commodities.
We can only hope that efforts to free the Ever Given are successful – and rapid.
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