CAIRO — The near week-long shutdown of the Suez Canal threw
an uncomfortable international spotlight on Egypt, but experts see limited
overall fallout for its commercial shipping reputation.
اضافة اعلان
The accident, in which a 200,000-tonne container vessel
became wedged diagonally across the canal during a sandstorm, blocked a crucial
shipping artery used for 10 percent or more of world trade.
But fears that it could take weeks to refloat the behemoth
proved unfounded.
Six days into the crisis, after major operations involving a
flotilla of tug boats and excavators dredging up sand, the Japanese-owned MV
Ever Given was freed and taken to an unobtrusive anchorage.
Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority was quick to claim credit.
“Anywhere else in the world, this operation would have taken
three months,” boasted canal chief Osama Rabie, adding that “99 percent” of
personnel working at the scene had been Egyptian.
Visibly relieved, he said he had been told by President
Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi that “the reputation of Egypt rested on my shoulders.”
Sisi, who deposed president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, spent
over $8 billion to widen and add a 35 kilometer second lane on a northern
segment of the canal amid much pomp six years ago.
The country has emerged from the short crisis with credit,
said Tony Munoz, editor-in-chief at trade publication Maritime Executive.
“The Egyptian government handled the blockage and closure of
the critical trade lane exceptionally well, considering the intense
international pressure,” Munoz told AFP.
However, Munoz also pointed to the significant role played
by the international salvage specialists who worked alongside Egyptian
personnel.
Munoz cited in particular the crisis management expertise
provided by Resolve Marine’s Captain Nick Sloane, who was also salvage master
for the clear-up of the 2012 Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster off Italy.
Another expert likewise said international help was crucial.
“There was bound to be some domestic flag-waving about the
success of the refloating ... but it does not diminish the Dutch involvement,”
said Angus Blair of the American University in Cairo, referring to Dutch firm
Smit Salvage.
Both Blair and Munoz saw little or no impact from the canal
blockage on Egypt’s share of shipping cargo traffic over the medium-term.
“In essence, this was only a traffic accident — (albeit) a
big one,” said Blair.
“Airports have accidents, but within hours to a day the
airport will reopen and then there is an investigation to determine the cause,”
he added. “So, I do not think there is damage to Egypt’s reputation.”
Munoz noted that “the alternative of sailing around Africa
is not reasonable”, emphasising that the whole “purpose of these mega-boxships
is to reduce port calls and operational costs”.
But Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle
East Center, noted that “when oil prices drop below a certain level, the longer
route around the Cape of Good Hope becomes cheaper.”
An expert on the enormous economic sway of Egypt’s military,
Sayigh has long seen the costly 2014-15 expansion of the canal as ill-judged.
In a 2019 study, he noted that “Sisi’s demand that it be
completed within one year rather than the three years it was estimated to
require” contributed to the cost of the project more than doubling from initial
estimates.
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