By Reuters<\/p>\n\n\n
Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone and its Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT) will invest $50 million at Port Said East port.<\/p>\n\n\n
It would also lower the fees it charges in a bid to boost its competitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n
Opened in 2004, SCCT is operated by majority shareholder APM Terminals, part of Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk MAERSKb.CO.<\/p>\n\n\n
Located at the northern end of the Suez Canal, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, it is part of Port Said East port, an international trans-shipment hub with deep water facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n
Investments under the agreement announced on Tuesday include heightening six ship-to-shore cranes to handle more mega vessels, and providing at least 15 new rubber tyre gantry cranes, a joint statement from the SC Zone and the SCCT said.<\/p>\n\n\n
Two tunnels connecting the port to the western side of the canal opened recently, improving access for Egyptian trade, though the tunnels currently close at night.<\/p>\n\n\n
The SC Zone and SCCT said they expected the tunnels to be fully operational around the clock “in the near future”.<\/p>\n\n\n
The port has struggled to attract transshipment business in recent years after fees were raised in 2015 and a bridge across the Suez Canal was closed for security reasons in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n
Much of the potential business went to the Greek port of Piraeus, industry sources said.<\/p>\n\n\n
Last year the port saw some recovery, handling 3.1 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), 21% higher than in 2018, and it is aiming to maintain that level in 2020 despite the impact of the new coronavirus outbreak, SCCT CEO Lars Vang Christensen said at a media conference in Cairo.<\/p>\n\n\n
Fees at the port will be lowered from Wednesday, said Yehia Zaki, head of the SC Zone, without giving details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Reuters Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone and its Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT) will invest $50 million at Port Said East port. It would also lower the fees it charges in a bid to boost its competitiveness. Opened in 2004, SCCT is operated by majority shareholder APM Terminals, part of Denmark’s A.P. Moller-Maersk MAERSKb.CO. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21890,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-free-trade-zone","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"yoast_head":"\n