"I planted this tree, I drove this road, if you want to live from here, hurry up and pay for it. This classic martial arts line is often used to describe the domineering behavior of robbers. But in reality, there is a place where the toll is as high as 3 million, but it is still being queued up to go, what is going on?
The answer is the Suez Canal! The Suez Canal, located in Egypt, is an important passage connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea. It has an irreplaceable geographical location and is the closest seafaring route from Europe to the lands near the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
In the 19th century, Britain and France looked to the East for their colonies, and there were two routes from Western Europe to the East, one by land, blocked by the Turkish Empire, and the other by water, which ran along the coastline through the Cape of Good Hope.
Britain controlled the Cape of Good Hope, and France could not pass through it, so France began to think of opening a new route, and the opening of the Suez Canal was undoubtedly the best solution. In 1858, France invested in the construction of the Suez Canal, which took 11 years and cost about 18.6 million pounds, and Egypt paid the lives of 120,000 laborers.
In 1969, the Suez Canal was officially put into use, and since then it has become an important passage connecting Europe, Asia and Africa. The emergence of the Suez Canal has greatly shortened the voyage from Europe to the Indian Ocean and has had a profound impact on the world.
Its opening made it possible for goods to sail directly between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, greatly improving the efficiency and economic benefits of transportation. According to statistics, the Suez Canal passes through more than 40,000 ships each year, bringing billions of dollars in revenue to Egypt every year.
However, the current state of management of the Suez Canal is also worrying. Due to corruption and mismanagement in Egypt, the safety of the canal is often overcome. In addition, the high toll of the canal has also caused some controversy.
Nevertheless, the importance of the Suez Canal cannot be overlooked, and it will continue to play its important role in the world.
Located at the intersection of Asia, Europe and Africa, the Suez Canal plays an irreplaceable role as an important transportation artery connecting three continents. The canal, which starts at Port Said and ends in Suez City, is about 190 kilometers long, with a width of 280 to 345 meters and a depth of 21 meters.
Every year, about 12% of the world's ** volume is transported through the Suez Canal, making it one of the most important waterways in the world. The Suez Canal is blessed with unique geographical advantages, attracting the competition of various powers.
In the past, when there was no mechanization, the construction of the Suez Canal was a challenging and costly process, more than doubling the budget, and leaving Egypt with a foreign debt of more than £1,200.
In 1875, when Egypt suffered an economic crisis, the powerful British took the opportunity to buy 400 million francs of the Canal Company at a cost of 100 million francs, accounting for 44% of the shares, and from then on, the management and operation of the Suez Canal began to be jointly controlled by Britain and France.
1.Closure and nationalization of the Suez Canal: French intervention led to a coalition of countries opposing the British control of the Suez Canal, resulting in the closure of the canal for six months.
After the nationalization of Egypt** Nasser, it was closed again in 1967 for eight years. The canal is of positive and important significance to the stability and prosperity of the world, and is the "choke point of world shipping" of great strategic significance in the international shipping lane.
2.The Suez Canal is cost-effective: there are two routes for sea transportation from the Middle East to Western Europe, and small cargo ships can choose to detour the Cape of Good Hope if the time requirements are not very high, although the fuel cost is higher, but you can save expensive tolls.
While considering the time factor, the cost of fuel is also a factor that must be considered, because the cost of fuel ** directly determines the cost of fuel. On April 22, 2020, the international bunker fuel** has dropped to 206$5 t, and before that, on January 6, the fuel ** had been as high as $741 t, with a gap of 534$5.
If the fuel** is maintained at $260 t, then the speed is less than 19At 3kN, circumambulating the Cape of Good Hope has a cost-saving advantage compared to the Suez Canal.
However, when the speed is higher than 19At 3kn, circumnavigating the Cape of Good Hope no longer has an advantage. After several freighter passages, the results show that the cost of circumnavigating the Cape of Good Hope path is closely related to the speed and fuel of the vessel**.
All other things being equal, the lower the speed of the ship, the lower the fuel cost, and the greater the advantages of detouring the Cape of Good Hope path.
According to the comprehensive consideration of various aspects of the shipping company, it is more cost-effective to choose a sailing mode with a speed and fuel ** below a fixed value. Relevant data show that from the countries of the Atlantic coast of Europe to the Indian Ocean, the voyage through the Cape of Good Hope is shortened by 5,500-8,009 kilometers compared with the circumambulation, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean is shortened by 8,000-10,000 kilometers compared with the Cape of Good Hope, and the distance on the Black Sea coast is shortened by 12,000 kilometers.
For example, a ship loaded with 5,000 TEUs consumes 32t of fuel per day when empty and 130t per day when fully loaded, if you choose to detour the Cape of Good Hope, from Singapore, Malacca, Indian Ocean, South Africa, Lisbon, the whole route is 10,741 nautical miles, and a day is calculated as a voyage of 576 nautical miles, and a single voyage takes 19 days.
If you want to save time and money while ensuring safe navigation, the Suez Canal is a good choice. Compared with circumnavigating the Cape of Good Hope, choosing the Suez Canal can save 3,463 nautical miles and 6 days less, and the larger the container ship, the more advantageous.
Although you need to pay a toll of 3 million, considering the 130t of fuel that needs to be consumed every day, it will cost 780t more fuel if you walk for 6 more days, and the extra cost is 358 according to the calculation of 4600 yuan t80,000 yuan, plus the wages of seafarers and other costs, the toll of the Suez Canal is actually quite cheap.
In addition, the Suez Canal is also very safe, compared to the bad weather and dangerous waters of the Cape of Good Hope, the Suez Canal is undoubtedly a safer option.
Located at the junction of Asia and Africa, the Suez Canal is ideal for shipping between East and West with high efficiency and low cost. Despite the high cost of tolls, the number of ships passing through the Suez Canal each year has exploded, considering the time and economic costs it brings.
The Suez Canal was born at a high cost, as more than 4 million Egyptians were forced to work as laborers in order to dig up the 1 billion tons of sand transported abroad. Many of them were forced to endure the threat of death because of a lack of water and food.
In addition, due to the outbreak of the plague, Egypt sent another 1.1 billion laborers to ensure the normal construction of the canal, however, 120,000 people lost their lives during the construction process.
Despite this, the Suez Canal remains an important passage connecting the world with its incomparable value.
The Suez Canal, a history book full of the blood and tears of the Egyptian people, records the cost of countless laborers' lives. In the last century, wars broke out between the great powers for control of the canal, planting numerous bombs and forcing the closure of shipping routes.
The United States, which relies on transport from the Middle East, would have to pay a quarter more for fuel if it did not choose the Suez Canal, and more time and personnel wages would have to be wasted.
In desperation, the United States invested $200 million in 1974 to clean up the waterway, and then in 1976 to widen it. Finally, in 2015, Egypt invested $8 billion to widen it again and open a new channel next to the original canal, enabling two-way navigation of the canal.
The Suez Canal is not only a witness to history, but also the crystallization of human wisdom.
The Suez Canal is an important waterway located in Egypt, where 70% of Middle Eastern oil exports to Western Europe are transported every year, in addition, it also carries about 14% of the world's ** volume and 22% of container traffic.
According to the data, in 2019, the Suez Canal transported up to 1.2 billion tons of goods, and from July 2020 to June 2021, the Suez Canal's revenue hit 58An all-time high of $400 million.
During this time period, the number of ships passing through the Suez Canal reached 9,763, with an income of about 3 billion US dollars, equivalent to about 193 yuan500 million yuan, and the average toll per vessel is as high as 1.98 million yuan.
Suppose a ship with a 20,000 TEU would cost 10 million for a round trip through the Suez Canal, and Egypt would earn $5.5 billion a year through the Suez Canal alone.
Relevant data show that the 1 km Suez Canal can collect 1The toll of 2.6 billion yuan is equivalent to 1,000 times that of the highway, and you can earn billions of dollars a year by buying a cargo ship.
For this reason, the Suez Canal is figuratively called "Egypt's money printing machine".
New Copy: The Suez Canal, an important waterway connecting the East and Western Europe, is often used by large cargo ships due to its shortened range and savings in fuel and labor costs, but it also leads to frequent congestion.
However, despite bringing in $5.3 billion in revenue to Egypt every year, widening the canal requires an investment of $8 billion and will take 20-30 years to pay for itself, so Egypt has no incentive to do so.
At 8:00 a.m. on March 23, 2021, a Panamax-class cargo ship "Ever Given" from Taiwan, China, stopped almost sideways in the canal due to the impact of sandstorms and crosswinds.
With a length of 400 meters, a width of nearly 60 meters and a displacement of 220,000 tons, the ship cut off an important channel of the Suez Canal and affected traffic between Europe and Asia.
The cargo ship "Ever Given" of Japan's Zhengro Steamship Company ran aground in the Suez Canal, affecting the normal navigation of many ships and causing 450 ships to be stranded. The canal management company used a variety of methods, including dredging and tides, but all of them were unsuccessful, and it was not until the 29th that the bow of the ship was straightened with the efforts of the tides and the construction team, and the Suez Canal was restored to normal navigation.
The six days of the Ever Given stranding took a huge toll on the canal authorities, ships waiting for navigation and retailers waiting for their goods. This incident has seriously affected the normal progress of the world**, and Japan's Zhengro Steamship Company and insurance companies are expected to face millions in compensation.
The Suez Canal Management Company demanded $900 million in compensation from Ever Given, which it detained in its berth at the Great Bitter Lake until it was paid.
The blockage of the Suez Canal cost Egypt $12 million to $14 million a day, while giant oil tankers parked at the entrance to the canal had to pay $30,000 to $80,000 a day.
The successful rescue of the Dutch Smit Salvage Company will also bring tens of millions of dollars in rescue costs to the parties responsible for the accident. During the blockage of the Suez Canal, many ships chose to detour to the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, which would have taken about two weeks and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional fuel and labor.
According to a recent study by German insurance company Allianz, the blockage of the Suez Canal will cost the world** $6 billion to $10 billion a day. Finally, on July 7, 2021, the Suez Canal Management Center, the Ever Given ship Dongfang and the contractor reached an agreement, and the Ever Given successfully sailed out of the canal on the same day.
The widening of the Suez Canal has once again attracted attention. Egypt is facing huge economic losses caused by the blockage of the canal, and the loss of tens of millions of dollars in revenue every day makes Egypt sad.
Therefore, although Egypt had reservations about widening the canal, in the face of such economic pressure, Egypt** once again proposed a plan to widen the canal. According to Osama Rabiyeh, chairman of Egypt's Suez Canal Authority, the canal widening project started in July 2021 and is expected to be completed within two years.
When completed, the narrowest stretch of the river will be navigable by 28 percent, bringing more revenue to Egypt's economy. In 2021, the canal set a new record for traffic, with the number of ships passing through reaching 20,694 with a gross tonnage of 12700 million tons, of which the number of containers reached 5,186, a year-on-year increase of 10%.
Toll revenues reached $6.3 billion, which was a huge boost for the Egyptian economy. According to the International Monetary Organization and the World Organization, the global economy grew by 4 in 20229%, and traffic on the canal is expected to grow by 7%.
In response to such growth, the Suez Canal Authority announced that it would raise tolls, with the exception of LNG carriers and tankers. This means that the cost per container will increase by 1$35.
Although the toll will be **, it is a worthwhile investment for Egypt considering the economic benefits of the canal's widening.
In the case of the 2000TEU Ever Given, for example, the toll has increased from about $450,000 to $47$70,000. Despite rising tolls, the Suez Canal still has a number of advantages over the Cape of Good Hope, with vessel traffic continuing to grow and market demand far outpacing.
In response to market demand, the Suez Canal Management Center announced that it will raise the toll fees of various types of ships again on May 1, with a maximum increase of 20%, which is also the second toll increase this year.
At a symposium on the Suez Canal grounding organized by the China Shipowners Association on April 12, Xu Zuyuan, vice minister of transport, stressed the importance of shipping in global economic integration and said that international cooperation is an inevitable trend.
The accident ship was made in Japan, the owner was also Japanese, the flag country was Panama, the charterer was China's Evergreen Shipping, the crew was Indian, the cargo was a container from China, the consignee was an EU country, and the insurers involved many countries.
Due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, the freight rates of the West Coast, East Coast and Europe routes have been **, but the current freight rates are still higher than before, which means that the market is still in short supply, which also helps shipping companies pass on the increased costs to cargo owners.
The May 1 toll** is an amendment to the surcharge increase imposed on vessels in March, which is as follows: For container ships traveling from north to south, a surcharge of 5% to 39% of the usual toll will be added for each container loaded.
For container ships from south to north, a surcharge of 9% to 57% of the normal toll will be added for each container loaded. According to the Suez Canal Authority, the increase in tolls reflects a significant increase in the world, and the fees collected contribute to the development of the canal's waterways and the improvement of transport services.
The Suez Canal has contributed to the world's leading development! The widening of the canal not only makes it easier for cargo ships to pass, but also injects new impetus into global prosperity. The economic boom has led to an increase in Egypt's income, which is a good thing that all of humanity wants to see.
Therefore, it was a logical decision for the Suez Canal Authority to raise tolls. The Suez Canal is still the most cost-effective option for suppliers, so they are willing to wait in line.
The world needs the joint efforts of all countries, and only peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation can achieve true prosperity. Let's huddle together for warmth, make money together, and pursue a peaceful and win-win world together!