The document discusses establishing an international logistics center in the Suez Canal region of Egypt by leveraging the strategic location of ports like East Port Said and developing world-class logistics facilities and free trade zones integrated with improvements to infrastructure and services at Egyptian ports on the Suez Canal. It recommends Egypt learn from Panama's experience in maximizing the benefits of its strategic canal location by developing high quality port and logistics facilities as well as free zones. The establishment of a Suez Canal International Logistics Center is presented as a strategy to better capitalize on Egypt's Suez Canal assets.

1. • Appropriate incen-
tive packages for foreign
investors
• Supporting port
infrastructure at all ter-
minal facilities
• Supporting human
resources development
programs
• Pool of high-tech re-
search and development
institutes
3- The most important
characteristics for Egyp-
tian ports on Suez Canal
to integrate with the na-
tional, regional and in-
ternational transport net-
works, should:
Create physical inte-
gration of transport by
road, rail, inland water-
ways and sea.
Achieve economies of
scale through coopera-
tion internally and coop-
eration with future logis-
tics centers.
Create a freight con-
centration by providing
the basis for establishing
efficient international
transportation links
Create a development
environment for the
transport sector, that in-
tegrates with economic
development strategy of
the country
4- Egyptian ports on
Suez Canal should cur-
rently take serious steps
to improve the quality
of their services, and to
provide basic logistics
and communications
infrastructure in order
to reap the benefits of
e-commerce and IT ,
information systems
should be established to
control and facilitate lo-
gistics activities, within
the national and global
logistics Chain through ,
from / to Egyptian Ports,
so as to work in coor-
dination and harmony
with the intended global
logistics center of Suez
Canal region.
5- Egyptian ports
on Suez Canal should
provide value added
logistics services that
include:
Receiving goods,
breaking shipments,
preparing for shipment,
returning empty packag-
ing.
Simple storage, distri-
bution, order picking.
Centralizing and
customizing, added parts
and manuals.
Assembly, repair,
reverse logistics.
Quality control, test-
ing of products.
Installing and instruc-
tion.
6- A comprehensive
review of free trade
zones strategies and
legislations in Egypt
should be made, to grant
its integration with na-
tional and international
economic developments,
and to coordinate the
future of Egypt’s free
zones with the na-
tional transport
and logistics
plan of the
country.
LEAKS
IN NEW PANAMA
CANAL LOCKS
Officials have discovered a crack in the Cocoli Locksof the New Panama
Canal which are located on the Pacific side.
The locks’ filling-related procedures were initiated back on June 22nd. The filling
of the locks, which is to take 90 days according to expectations, marks the beginning of
compliance and operational trials regarding the
canal expansion.
Twitter and various maritime media reports,
however, have pointed out that the crack in ques-
tion regarding one of locks’ sills could quite likely
impact the schedule of the project.
On Saturday, experts from the Panama Canal
Authority (ACP) and Grupo Unidos por el Canal
(GUPC) met in order to evaluate the issue.
The filling process is conducted via the use of powerful diesel and electric pumps that
were designed in accordance with the specific requirements of the project. A network
consisting of a total of 13 diesel pumps are responsible for pumping 7,000 gallons
of water each on a minute basis, while the electric pumps account for 30,000
gallons of water each again respectively per minute. The lower chamber is
thus filled up at nine-inch-per-hour rate.
The current schedule points out that the
canal should be completed in April of
2016.
Egypt’s First Female
Shipmaster Participates
In New Suez Canal
Celebrations
Egypt’s First Female Shipmaster Participates In New Suez
Canal Celebrations
AmidawaveofrisinganticipationforEgypt’smulti-billion
grand project opening, Egypt’s first and youngest female
shipmaster,Marwael-Slehdar,hasproudlyannouncedher
participationinthenewSuezCanalopeningonThursday,
reported state-owned Al-Ahram.
“Even though I have been dreaming of taking part in the [New
Suez Canal] opening ceremony, I never thought the dream would
come true,” says Slehdar. “I was overjoyed when I learned that I
would be on deck of ‘Aida 4’ as a second naval officer, making me
the youngest and first Egyptian and Arab shipmaster to take part
in a celebration that the whole world will be watching.” Marwa el-
Slehdar, 24, is a graduate of the 73rd class of the Arab Academy of
Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AAST) in the coastal
city Alexandria, and is regarded the first Egyptian woman to study
marine navigation at AAST.
Slehdary shared in an interview on the TV show, Masr Elnahrda
(EgyptToday)thatalthoughthedepartmentonlysawmaleapplicants,
there
w a s
no rule
against the
application of
girls. However,
after a female
student from Djibouti
was admitted into the
program on a scholarship, Slehdar
took the daring initiative, and approached
the academy board, requesting to be transferred to the
highly demanding department.Nevertheless, her family’s support was
a great motive for her not only to join the male-dominated field, but
to excel at it as well. Three years after her graduation, Slehdar has
found a new family away from home on deck of the ships she serves
on. “When I was informed of being accepted as part of the Aida 4
crew, I was both happy and afraid. But when I stepped on the ship,
Captain Abdelhamid el-Qady, master of Aida 4, was very welcoming
which washed away my fear. I soon blended in with the crew, and felt
like they were my family.” “When we sailed towards the new Suez
Canal, I knew it was a grand project, but I hadn’t realized until [I
saw it for myself] that we are before a unique event,” Slehdar added,
expressing how proud she is of Egyptians who succeeded at defying
many challenges in a single year to bring forth a grand project as
such.
On July 25, less than two weeks prior to the official inauguration
of the new Suez Canal, the new waterway saw the passage of three
container ships as a test-run.Under the patronage of the Egyptian
army and president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the new waterway, an $US 8
billion mega-project that has been under construction since August
2014, is scheduled to be formally opened on August 6.
Suez canal Terminal
5
D. Daood
Marwa
Issue No. 1 - Octoper 2015

2. Towards the Establishment of a Global
Logistics Center at Suez Canal Region
Suez Canal is one of the
most important waterways
in the world due to
its unique geographic
location between the east
and west, it provides the
shortest maritime route
between the Atlantic
Ocean to the Indian Ocean
,reducing the journey from
Asia to Europe by about
9000 km by skipping a
detour around the Cape
of Good Hope, the canal
is extensively used by
modern ships of all types
carrying international
trade
The strategic impor-
tance of Suez Canal en-
dures more importance
, because of the Arabian
Gulf oil trade and the Pa-
cific Asian commercial
trade. The journey from
the Persian Gulf to the
Northern European range
is particularly im-
pacted by
t h e
Suez Canal as a 21,000
km journey around Af-
rica taking 24 days is
reduced to a 12,000 km
journey taking 14 days
This importance is get-
ting augmented with the
evolution of maritime
transport and world trade.
The maritime transport is
the cheapest means of
transport, whereas more
than 80 % of the world
trade volume is trans-
ported via waterways
(seaborne trade), tolls
paid by the vessels repre-
sent an important source
of income for the Egyp-
tian government.
Turning Suez Canal
Region into an interna-
tional logistics center:
Suez Canal Authority
was assigned to act as the
official umbrella for car-
rying out the project and
to be responsible for an-
nouncing the project ten-
ders as it is a national au-
thority which enjoys high
capabilities in manage-
ment and a world stature,
in coordination with the
Ministerial group con-
sisting of the ministries
of transport, housing, in-
vestment, planning, local
government and commu-
nications.
In the initial stage of
the project, all relevant
information will be
offered to the world
consultant houses to
reach the best sketch
for the project in line
with the current and
future capabilities
of the harbors of
East Port Said,
North al Sokh-
na, the Suez
Canal and
the indus-
trial zone
northwest
of Suez.
The im-
plementa-
tion of the
p r o j e c t
will lead
to trans-
f e r r i n g
the region
into a
world in-
dustrial
zone and
an interna-
tional lo-
gistic cen-
ter through
benefiting
from the status of Suez
Canal authority, this co-
lossal development proj-
ect will help developing
the Egyptian National
economy and provide
new job opportunities.
21- Benefitting from
the Panamian Experi-
ence:
It was clearly illustrat-
ed on this paper from the
Panamian experience
Suez Canal is as im-
portant as Panama Ca-
nal, if not having more
importance to interna-
tional trade, as more than
17000 vessels of all types
are transiting Suez Canal
each year.
Despite the fact that
Suez Canal was inau-
gurated in 1869 several
decades before Panama
Canal, but it has not
made the best use of its
geographic location, and
its benefits were made
mostly to the countries
merchant fleets transiting
the Canal, while Panama
became a Canal with a
state more than it is a
state with a canal.
Egypt in all time from
1869 till now has not yet
made the best use of Suez
Canal as it counts on it as
a source of national rev-
enue from the Canal Tolls
which amounts to about
U.S.5 billion dollars an-
nually in average.
The Egyptian experi-
ence of establishing the
free city of Port Said as a
commercial free zone on
the Northern Entrance of
Suez Canal, has achieved
minor positive results on
the Egyptian economy
since its establishment
in 1975, and more it re-
sulted in a spot where
smuggling operations for
imported goods which
harmed to a great deal the
national industry.
The Egyptian expe-
rience of establishing
the North West Gulf of
Suez special economic
zone, was
neither suc-
cessful, as
the project
was faced
by bureau-
cratic difficulties on all
levels, and the marketing
capabilities were not ef-
ficient enough to attract
international companies.
The Egyptian govern-
ments failed over time
to produce a comprehen-
sive planning process to
make use of the strategic
genuine location of Suez
Canal and to link it with
the ports of Port Said and
Suez, and even to estab-
lish free zones to inte-
grate with these national
assets.
Conclusions:
1- From the logistics
point of view, ports are
part of the logistics sys-
tems along the supply
chain which have to re-
spond to pull logistics;
their action will contrib-
ute towards the reduc-
tion of inventory levels
along the logistics pipe-
line, a fall in associated
costs, and the fulfillment
of tighter customers’ re-
quirements through high
service levels within
shorter lead-times.
2- World class ports are
those ports with a strate-
gic location and large
handling and logistics
facilities, based on high
quality of infrastructure
and superstructure, one
major characteristic of
these ports ,is that they
are reasonably big in area
size and draft along the
berths, to enable them
to attract modern genera-
tions of vessels, having
reliable and well devel-
oped feeder and inland
transport systems/con-
nections, these ports are
very efficient in cargo
handling and providing
high performance logis-
tics services within the
global supply chain, with
a very cost effective ser-
vices.
3- There is a strong
world interest in ensur-
ing that ports operate
efficiently and safely,
providing competitive
services, and that ports
support and, several
countries interest in ports
is stemmed from the vi-
tal role that ports play as
gateways of economic
trade and commerce,
foster economic develop-
ment locally and nation-
ally, improving port pro-
ductivity in all segments
of the supply chain , as
ports play a key role in
international logistics op-
erations, it is in the ports
where many of the busi-
ness opportunities have
been identified, that ex-
plains the quest for many
ports to establish free
zones and logistics cen-
ters within ports.
4- For world class ports
to lead global logistics
within their respective
regions, as those in Neth-
erlands, Singapore and
Hong Kong have consis-
tently expanded their lo-
gistics facilities ,accom-
panied by establishing
free trade zones as part
of their efforts to con-
solidate and centralize
logistics management,
as a result these ports be-
come favorite locations
for global firms.
5- The increasing num-
ber of logistics centers
and FTZs in ports around
the world explains the
important role of ports
in terms of their logistics
function. New port func-
tions, compassing logis-
tics centers and FTZ have
been having a profound
effect on the port indus-
try in the region, as major
ports rush to utilize these
new logistics systems.
6- This research paper
illustrated the experience
of Panama to make the
best use of its strategic
location, by developing
three pivotal elements,
sustained development
of Colon port to cope
with the developments in
world seaborne trade, in
parallel with Colon free
zone and the logistics fa-
cilities provided on world
class standard.
Recommendations:
1- Egypt should work
on making the best ben-
efit of its strategic loca-
tion, for all Egyptian
ports development strat-
egy, especially at the
greater Port Said area
which has a genuine lo-
cation on the north en-
trance of Suez Canal, and
North West of Suez Gulf
Region, by integrating
the role of East Port Said
Hub port and North Al-
sokhna port, with world
class logistics centers and
modern global free zones
within the whole area of
Suez Canal.
2- For Egypt to estab-
lish the Suez Canal Inter-
national Logistics Center
port development strate-
gy, which integrates with
a world a modern global
free zone, it should estab-
lish:
• Existence of com-
parative cost advantages
• A favorable fiscal
environment
• Existing high-tech
manufacturing industry
base
• One-stop-shop local
marketing organiza-
tion that proactively
promotes the location,
supported by appropriate
literature and materials
Suez canal Terminal
Dr. Iyman Al Nahrawy
Dr. Iyman Al Nahrawy
4 Issue No. 1 - Octoper 2015