Lieutenant General Osama Rabie: The Suez Canal has withstood global crises
Lieutenant General Osama Rabie, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, confirmed that the canal has proven its ability to withstand and continue working with high efficiency despite successive global crises, noting that the authority has dealt professionally with unprecedented challenges over the past years.
This came during the symposium organized by the National Press Authority, headed by Engineer Abdel Sadiq El-Shorbagy, in the presence of the heads of the boards of directors and editors of national newspapers.
Lieutenant General Rabie explained that the Suez Canal It was one of the first sectors affected by the Corona pandemic, which necessitated taking urgent measures to maintain the movement of global trade, stressing: “We were forced to provide reductions in fees to maintain the competitiveness of the canal, yet the number of ships passing by increased by 8%.”
He pointed out that the crisis of the stranded ship “Ever Given” In March 2021, it was one of the most difficult challenges facing the Authority, saying: “The ship was penetrating the wall at a depth of 12 meters below the surface of the water, but a young man working for the Authority suggested resolving the crisis using bulldozers, and God’s hand was with us until the ship was successfully refloated.” He added that this crisis was a test of the canal’s capabilities, saying: “We received widespread international praise at a time when there was talk about the decline of the Suez Canal, while we proved that there is no alternative to it.”
Rabie explained that the crisis caused the cessation of 422 ships that were waiting to cross, and some shipping lines also canceled their flights until the crisis ended, but the intervention of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi was decisive in ending the situation quickly.
The head of the Suez Canal Authority continued his speech. Saying that the canal later faced the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022, and then the navigation crisis in the Red Sea in 2023 after the hijacking of a ship, which led to a number of major shipping lines suspending their crossing of the passage. He added: “We were communicating daily with international maritime institutions and shipping lines until we gradually regained confidence, especially since the average daily transit dropped from 75 ships before the crisis, to only 30 during the crisis.” The field of training is through the Suez Canal Academy for Maritime Training and Simulation, which includes a ship simulator and a dredging simulator, in addition to the Academy of Creativity and Excellence, which works in cooperation with Siemens and Maersk.
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