The Suez Canal has been open to navigation for so many years. Why not dig the river wider and deeper?

Hello, many people are thinking: The mechanization of Sinai Peninsula-Ma Pingchuan is not slow, and the Suez Canal can be easily dug wide and deep. Are the Egyptians too lazy these years? Otherwise, there would not be the current grand occasion of blocking ships.

1. online statement: it will cost a lot of money to widen and deepen the river, which means that the price of crossing the river will increase, which is not worth the loss. At present, the problem of Suez Canal is really that the water depth is not enough. In order to cross the canal, ships in those years had to build special ships with shallow draft. However, this kind of ship is extremely weak in resisting wind and waves in the ocean. The bigger it is, the more likely it is to have an accident, and the greater the difference between ships with normal speed and appearance.

If the Egyptians choose to widen it again, they will have to spend a lot of money. The so-called wool is on the sheep, which means that the money needs to be recovered from the toll, which means that the price will rise again. If the price goes up again, many ships may really go to the Cape of Good Hope.

In this way, the Egyptians spent manpower, financial resources and material resources to broaden and deepen, and it seems that there is no motivation at all.

2. Looking back at history: How was the Suez Canal dug? Someone asked: Can the Suez Canal pass in both directions? This question depends on time. No problem after 20 16, but it's a pity before 20 16. And the canal was completed at 1869. At that time, even today, it is not easy to dig a one-way waterway in the face of a huge project.

Previously, all ships entering the Indian Ocean from Europe had to bypass the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. The long journey not only increases the uncertainty of navigation, but also the cost of trade is a huge pressure. 1859, the Suez Canal was officially started, and the amazing engineering quantity required countless people. Many poor local Egyptians became workers in the Suez Canal. The amount of labor assigned to the workers by the Canal Company was heavy, but the wages paid were extremely meager.

At that time, the sanitary conditions were very poor. 1863, 1865 typhoid fever and other diseases broke out in the construction site, and workers died in batches. Canal company can't even find someone to carry the body. In this case, the canal was still declared completed at 1869. Apart from many unexpected political and technical problems, the project cost alone is as high as 1860000, which is more than twice the original budget. After the completion of the project, the width of the river is between 280 meters and 345 meters. It's okay to put two cargo ships in this width, but if you sail in groups, there are great hidden dangers.

Therefore, in view of the traffic rules of the Suez Canal, the formation of ships is the only choice. Even after the opening of the double track, ships still pass through the Suez Canal in batches.

However, after 20 16, a parallel canal was built on the east side of the Suez Canal. From then on, two-way and two-lane ships can travel in opposite directions without interference. Unfortunately, it is the one-lane part that is blocked by the long-line wheel.

Third, since Egypt has been built again, this time it is a one-way street blocked by long-term wheels. Why not broaden it? The Suez Canal has been widened and dredged many times since its opening. However, because there is only one channel, it has been impossible to achieve simultaneous two-way traffic. Ships heading south can only wait in line at the Great Bitter Lake, which broke down in the middle of the canal. After the northbound ships also came to the Great Bitter Lake, the two fleets could only move on after meeting.

Why doesn't Egypt dig 37 kilometers south into two lanes?

Later, the response of the shipping industry to the "two-lane" was not particularly strong, because everyone was worried that Egypt would turn this construction cost into the cost of canal passage and spread it on its own head. In fact, Egypt did the same. But the price increase is limited, because the Suez Canal is not the only choice after all, which has caused the real reason why the Suez Canal has not been widened and deepened for so many years.

I'm an ocean-going sailor and I've been through the Suez Canal many times. First of all, we should know that the Suez Canal is charged at one time according to the tonnage of ships. Our ship's deadweight is 200,000 tons, and we need to pay $300,000 at one time. About 60 ships pass through the Suez Canal every day, with a daily income of $6.5438+0.8 million. Therefore, the Suez Canal is also known as Egypt's "cash cow". Even if the whole country in Egypt doesn't work, the income from the canal alone is enough to feed a country's population. This is also the reason why the Suez Canal has been contested by western powers many times in history.

First: Last May, I sailed through the Suez Canal. Arriving at the canal anchorage requires not only queuing, but also applying for the assistance of Egyptian pilots, and for large merchant ships, you must rely on the assistance of tugboats. To this day, the Suez Canal is still a single channel, and only one ship can pass at a time. If the channel is widened, there will be more ships coming and going, which will easily lead to channel congestion, and the tugboats coming and going will also increase the danger of ships. Just like we usually cross a wooden bridge, it is relatively safe to cross only one person at a time. If you command properly at the bridge head, the traffic efficiency is relatively high. However, suddenly the wooden bridge became a path, and the number of tugboats coming and going increased. In addition, it is difficult for a ship to stop at any time if it wants to brake. Passing two ships side by side will also cause huge navigation hazards. Instead of this, it is better to have a single channel with high flow efficiency.

Second, the military significance of the Suez Canal is also very significant. If the river channel is widened, many western countries and even Egypt itself are determined not to allow it. Historically, many countries fought for the Suez Canal. Just like the container ship "Ever Given" now, a ship ran aground in the river, and the ships between the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean were forced to block. This is enough to show how important the strategic position of the Suez Canal is. This is a bottleneck. In case of war, Egypt will either close the Suez Canal or sink a huge ship in it. In this case, no warship or aircraft carrier can pass. For western countries, because the Suez Canal is relatively narrow and well controlled, they can gain the maritime advantage in the first time. Once the canal is widened, this effect will not be achieved. So they don't want to widen the canal. It is for national security and the advantage of governing the sea.

Third: At present, Suez Canal belongs to Egypt. Although Egypt is one of the four ancient civilizations, its domestic resources are relatively scarce and its scientific and technological level is relatively backward. Most of the land is desert. It belongs to a relatively backward developing country. The Suez Canal is 193 km long, so widening the canal is undoubtedly a particularly huge project. Moreover, simple widening is useless. To meet the draft of large ships, it is also to deepen the ships.

At present, this kind of large engineering ship is only available in China and some western countries. Even if Egypt wants to broaden and deepen, it seems that its own scientific and technological strength cannot be accomplished independently. In addition, after the canal speeds up, we should always consider the tide problem, because the tide rises and falls, the mud and water backfill time is long, and the depth of the canal is not enough, which is more likely to cause ships to run aground. So no matter from that aspect, it is impossible to widen and deepen the Suez Canal.

At present, the Suez Canal has been blocked for several days because of the suspension of Ever Given, which has caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to the Egyptian side. In addition, it will have a certain impact on all countries in the world. If the canal is still navigable, the global economy will be greatly affected. The nearest thing to us is the rise in oil prices. Because much of China's oil resources are imported, the Suez Canal is blocked and oil tankers are trapped. After a long time, oil resources are scarce and natural oil prices will also rise.

At present, the stranded ship in Suez Canal is still in further rescue, but the latest news is that the ship's bow is seriously stranded, the steel plate is broken and leaking, and the crew on board are pumping water with all their strength. In fact, it is still very dangerous for ships to run aground in the Suez Canal, and it is also a great test for rescuers. If the rescue fails and the boat capsizes, although there will be no casualties, the whole river channel is basically blocked. It will be a long-term job to find a salvage boat to salvage. In addition, there are more than 20 thousand containers on board! Therefore, the rescue work must be cautious.

When I once passed the Suez Canal, I felt no different from our Yangtze River, but it was clearer and shorter than our Yangtze River. But the situation on both sides of the Taiwan Strait is similar to that in our Yangtze River.

Why didn't the Suez Canal widen and deepen? Do you have any other opinions? Welcome to leave a message below, let's discuss it together!

Recently, because the large container ship "Changci" broke down in the Suez Canal, the eyes of the whole world focused on the Suez Canal. When the voyage can be resumed is still unknown. According to the statistics of relevant institutions, the world trade loses at least 2 billion yuan every day because of the blockage of the canal, but the accuracy of this figure needs to be evaluated. At present, it is certain that Egypt, where the Suez Canal is located, earns about $5.6 billion a year from canal tolls, so when the canal is blocked, Egypt's loss is as high as $ 1 billion a week. Many people will inevitably ask why Egypt didn't widen the Suez Canal earlier, which could not only cope with emergencies, but also increase toll revenue.

There are two reasons. The first terrain does not match. If the canal is simply built, the technology is not complicated. Even if Egypt can't build it itself, it can be outsourced to foreign companies. Just like 1859, the Suez Canal was built in Britain in 10. As early as 20 15, the Suez Canal was built, but the new route was limited to the north of Great Bitter Lake, and there was no suitable place from Great Bitter Lake to Suez Bay. If it is built on the west side of the original canal, it will cross the Suez residential area, and the demolition cost is huge. But it was built on the west side, beyond the scope of the Great Bitter Lake. So when Egypt built the Suez Canal, it only built the north side.

The second reason is cost. To put it bluntly, input and return are not proportional. Although Egypt can collect huge tolls every year by relying on the Suez Canal, relevant investigation agencies have done statistics. Even if the Suez Canal doubles, Egypt's income will not double, because the world's ship trade volume is basically fixed and will not increase with the expansion of the Suez Canal. The daily average turnover of more than 50 ships has been in a flat state. After all, compared with the world routes, the Suez Canal is only a short distance, and ocean-going ships sail on the high seas most of the time. Egypt will not spend huge sums of money to build another one simply to deal with emergencies.

Finally, if the benefits of building another canal are huge, Egypt has already built it, and there is no need to wait until now, because as early as 2004, an oil tanker ran aground in the Suez Canal. At that time, the Suez Canal was interrupted for three days, but Egypt did not see any intention to build it on the south side.

Welcome to click on the attention and leave a message to discuss together.

As far as the speed of construction in the west is concerned, it is normal to do it once every three to five years. Not to mention that the shareholders of Suez Canal disagree, even those European countries that do ocean trade absolutely disagree with the long-term closure of the waterway.

The Suez Canal accounts for 12% of the world's total maritime trade. If it is widened, it will be impossible to continue navigation in a short period of time, and ocean-going cargo ships will have to bypass the Cape of Good Hope for thousands of nautical miles. If the freight increases, the price will go up!

Everyone has big data, so why dig the river wide and deep? It's like opening a restaurant, which is full 24 hours a day. How nice it is to line up. Why must we expand our business and increase our costs? 24-hour business 12 hours. Empty time is a waste of cost.

The reconstruction project is huge, and the current shipping influence is also great. If the upgrade is carried out at present, many ships will continue to bypass Mong Kok, and the cost will be greatly increased.

No one does business at a loss, and Egyptians are not fools. They think it's worth expanding their business, and if it's not, they don't do it. Some people mentioned the difficulty of various projects, but it is not a problem. As long as the money is in place, it is easy to handle. To say the least, the Egyptians really can't afford it. They can pay the "world infrastructure enthusiasts" to March. We in China can do it. ...

In other words, the Suez Canal connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea was started by the French in 1858. 1869 was opened to traffic, and the British were jealous to intervene in Egyptian affairs. They took advantage of the financial crisis of the Ottoman Egyptian governor to successfully control the Suez Canal in 1875.

Once the British controlled the situation, they began the widening project of 1 wave, increasing the width of the Suez Canal to 365 meters. With the increase of traffic volume, the British people are rich and famous, not only paying a lot of tolls every year, but also strengthening the ties between the global colonies through the canal. Therefore, after the opening of the Suez Canal, the follow-up project of the river channel has been being done, because it is in the interests of the controller.

After World War II, the Egyptian government nationalized the Suez Canal, which greatly harmed the interests of Britain and France. Results 1956 Suez Canal War broke out, and finally Britain and France were forced to withdraw their troops under international pressure.

1967 When the third Middle East war broke out, the Suez Canal was forced to close, and navigation was not resumed until 1975. Then, the second wave of canal widening project started, and the first phase was completed on 1980. At this time, the maximum draft depth of ships passing through the Suez Canal is increased to 53 feet, and 200,000-ton ships can pass half-load and 370,000-ton ships can pass empty.

The canal is so profitable that the Egyptians can't stop it. They continued to expand and dig deeper. By 2006, the canal had been deepened to 62 feet and equipped with electronic tracking and monitoring system. Of course, it is accompanied by the "rising tide lifts all boats" of canal transit fees, such as $5130,000 in 1978, which reached $3.29 billion in 2004 and exceeded $5 billion in recent years.

The Egyptian government is happy to collect money, and those operators are not without countermeasures. They tailored the ship according to the Suez Canal. The latter is a businessman's thinking and adopts the strategy of scale economy. We will order a ship the size of a canal owned by the Egyptian government.

1968, the world's first 1 supertanker (ULCC) was born, with a total deadweight of 250,000 tons. 1979, the largest oil tanker ever put into use in Japan, with a total deadweight of over 555,000 tons. The number of ships passing through the canal every day is limited, and the Egyptians found that "the cost of widening the canal" and "the income after completion" were not very cost-effective.

Therefore, the Egyptians did not actively start to broaden the canal, and now they are in the best state of income. But sometimes it's embarrassing. For example, on March 23rd this year, a cargo ship "Ever Given" flying the Panamanian flag ran aground in the canal, which blocked the waterway, still indicating that the Suez Canal needs the next wave of projects.

The Suez Canal is one of the busiest waterways in the world, with 6.5438+0.8 million ships passing through it every year. Egypt is all countries, and it can get billions of dollars in tolls from the Suez Canal every year. In 2020, the Suez Canal in Egypt will realize a revenue of 56. 1 billion USD. Then, the Suez Canal brings such great economic benefits to Egypt every year. Why didn't Egypt dig the river deeper and wider?

In fact, the Suez Canal has been widened and deepened several times. Since the opening of 1869, there has been an endless stream of ships between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and Egypt has achieved high economic returns.

It has been more than 100 years since the opening of the Suez Canal. At first, more than 400 ships passed through it every year, and now it has developed to10.8 million ships. This river connects the cultural and economic exchanges between Asia, Europe and Africa.

When the Suez Canal was built, it was only a canal with a depth of 8 meters and a width of 22 meters. Only small boats with small load can be used, and larger boats will run aground. The main reason is that the passage is not wide enough and can only pass in one direction. If ships pass through the canal, then the ships behind can only wait in line at the port, so the efficiency is relatively low. If the river channel is widened and deepened to allow two-way traffic, it will be more efficient and will be provided to Egypt every year.

However, due to the one-way passage of the canal and various reasons, there have been many cargo ships stranded or even collided in the history of the canal, which greatly affected the safety of the Suez Canal.

In order to increase the safety and stability of the canal, Egypt increased the expansion of the Suez Canal from the end of 19 to the middle and late 20th century, with great changes in depth and width. Therefore, the Suez Canal has also become the lifeline of western countries and one of the busiest canals in the world.

Nowadays, with the rapid development of the times, the Persian region has great potential for oil exploitation, and more and more cargo ships and tankers pass through the Suez Canal. Under the influence of this huge interest, the Egyptian government tries its best to dig the river wide and deep almost every year in order to gain wealth from it, because at least 1/4 of the world's oil passes through it every year.

Of course, the Egyptian government will not miss such a good opportunity. By 2006, the canal had been able to pass 220,000-ton ships, and the water depth was more than 22 meters.

In 20 14, the Egyptian government once again proposed to transform the Suez Canal to make it a two-way waterway. Up to now, the waterway expansion project has been completed and the navigation capacity of the Suez Canal has been greatly improved.

This is a big project, which requires not only a lot of money, but also technology. Not every country has our island-building artifact. This kind of project is a bit too much for a country like Egypt. After all, Egypt didn't dig the canal, but it was later nationalized.