Tag: Egypt

State of emergency in Egypt

Most Port Operations Continuing in Port Said, Ismailia and Suez

Egypt, the world's biggest wheat importer, said on Sunday it was looking to use Georgia's Poti port for shipments of Kazakh wheat once the port is upgraded to receive Panamax ships carrying shipments of 55-60,000 tonnes.Nomani Nomani, vice chairman of the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), told Reuters that the upgrade at Poti port should took place within a year according to Georgian officials."Once the port is ready to receive Panamax ships, GASC will approve this port as one of the seaports for shipments of Kazakh wheat," Nomani said.Nomani and Egyptian maritime officials visited Georgia late last month to discuss wheat shipments to Egypt through Poti port.Nomani added that Poti port would be equipped within two months to receive handysize ships carrying shipments of around 24-30,000 tonne shipments for the private sector.Egypt consumes around 14 million tonnes of wheat annually and imports around half of that amount.Since the start of the 2011/12 fiscal year last July, GASC's purchases have been dominated by Black Sea origin wheat.GASC has bought 3.24 million tonnes of Russian wheat, 360,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat, 180,000 tonnes of Romanian wheat, 60,000 tonnes of Russian, Ukrainian or Kazakh wheat at the seller's option and 60,000 tonnes ...

Egypt's National Security Service has foiled a planned attack against a foreign vessel Egypt's National Security Service has foiled a planned attack against a foreign vessel in the Suez Canal. The service's officers detained two suspects - residents of the Ismailia Governorate, the MENA news agency reported on Wednesday.One of them planned to organize an attack on a vessel passing through the canal from a land plot he owned on the coast, says the report cited by RIA Novosti.No details of the preparation for the attack were immediately available. The agency said the suspects intended to "inflict damage upon the state's economy."The Suez Canal linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea is a key source of funding for Egypt's budget. The North African country receives some EUR 5 B annually on average in levies for the passage of vessels.Despite political instability in Egypt since the Hosni Mubarak regime was deposed in February 2011, the canal has operated normally. Some 50 ships pass through the canal daily.Source: Novinite

On vessels within Egyptian waters The West of England P&I Club has been advised by Eldib Pandi, Alexandria of a further change in the requirements governing the carriage of weapons, ammunition and armed guards on vessels within Egyptian waters.Following a recent Egyptian Ministry of Defence conference to discuss this issue, agents are now required to make a declaration 48 hours prior to arrival in the case of vessels which are due to call at Egyptian ports or transit the Suez Canal and have weapons, ammunition or armed guards on board. The agents are required to provide the Port Police, Military Intelligence, Coast Guard and Customs with a copy of the declaration. Also the Suez Canal Authority or the Port Authority, as applicable. The declaration shall include the following information:Details of the weapons / ammunition on board including the number of weapons, their calibre and serial numbers as well as the quantity of ammunitionThe nationalities of security personnel (armed guards)Confirmation that the weapons and ammunition will be placed in a sealed boxIf a vessel does not have weapons, ammunition and armed guards on board, the agent may require the Master to sign and stamp a form or statement to this effect.The ...

Updates by West of England P&I Club The West of England P&I Club has recently been advised by Egyptian Marine Insurance Consultations and Services (EMICS), Alexandria of a further change in the regulatory requirements governing the carriage of weapons, ammunition and armed guards on vessels within Egyptian waters.A free translation of the new requirements is reproduced below for guidance:The Egyptian Government forbids the presence of any weapons / armed guards on board commercial vessels as per the rules and regulations of the International Maritime Organisation.In the case of the presence of weapons on board commercial vessels calling at Egyptian ports, Masters shall lock the weapons in a safe compartment and issue a certificate regarding these weapons and deliver it to the pilot in the waiting area. The certificate shall include a confirmation from the Master that weapons will be delivered to Port Police Forces once berthed to be locked ashore after being inspected by the Port Police Forces and will be returned to the vessel before departing the port.If the above regulations are not adopted, the vessel will not be permitted to enter the port.In the case of vessels transiting the Suez Canal, the Port Police Forces will receive the ...

Egypt declares the carriage of arms and ammunition on board ships in territorial waters illegal The Egyptian authorities have recently declared the carriage of arms and ammunition on board ships in Egyptian territorial waters to be illegal.Our Egyptian correspondents, Eldib Pandi, have advised that the Egyptian authorities had allowed ships to enter Egyptian ports with arms on-board. This was on the basis that the ship's local agents would make a declaration to the port authority before the ship's arrival providing them with:the name of the ship the ship's ETA at the port the period of her stay in the port a list of the security personnel the number of pieces and the type of arms on-board.The port police officers had to board the ship upon her arrival to:put the arms in a locker and seal it obtain a written confirmation from the ship's master that such arms would not be used during the period of the ship's stay in the port appoint a police officer to stay on board the ship and watch the bonded store during the ship's stay in the port.The police officers would then break the seal when the ship was ready to sail. If the ship ...

Creation of one million new jobs The government of Qatar has revealed that it has signed an agreement with Egypt to build two new ports that will create one million new jobs.According to Qatar's Minister of State for International Corporation, these will be new facilities in the ports of Port Said and Alexandria.After leading a delegation to Egypt, he said there will also be bilateral cooperation in establishingtwo investment companies in Africa, with one focused on Sudan.In comments published by Qatar News Agency, he said that 1m job opportunities would be created by the Port Said port project with another 200,000 jobs as a result of the Alexandria proposal.The Minister said that the two sides would draw up a plan to carry out their agreements and set a time frame for the establishments of the ports.He added that a delegation of Qatari businessmen would visit Egypt next month to look for investment opportunities.Source: Worldmaritimenews

Egypt remained on this list for 20 years The Egyptian maritime transport fleet was announced to be out of the black list of the International Maritime Organization after a short time of its exit from the black list of the International LabourOrganization (ILO). Egypt remained on this list for 20 years, ranking the 63rd among 82 States in this classification. The reasoning for this was Egypt's withdrawal during the past decades in the field of maritime transport because of the lack of transparency in maritime inspection of ships and ferries, the low level of maintenance and quality as well as the absence of laws and legislations that organize working in the field of ships and maritime transport.Egypt's getting out of this list came according to the recent classification issued from the International Maritime Organization starting from current July. Thus, Egypt moved to the grey zone with the USA, Switzerland and other countries.The Transport Ministry has put a comprehensive plan after the January Revolution to classify the Egyptian maritime fleet through the inspection operations for the Egyptian ships along with the precise adherence to the international agreements' rules concerning the maritime safety, the matter in which Egypt succeeded to implement.Certainly, the ...

A strike would paralyze the canal Last Saturday, someone broke into an electricity control room here and threw a switch. Suddenly, Port Tawfiq, the vast shipyard that marks the southern entrance to the Suez Canal, and the southern half of the city of Suez went dark.Ten minutes later, the lights came back on. But in that short time, disgruntled workers who've been on strike here for the last three weeks had made their point: The Suez Canal, one of the world's busiest transportation hubs, could be paralyzed with very little effort."We did not cut the cables, although we could have," said Emad El Sadeq, a technician for the Suez Canal Shipyards, one of seven subsidiary companies run by the Suez Canal Authority. "We had to give them a taste of what we can do."In the five months since Hosni Mubarak was toppled from the presidency after 30 years of iron-fisted rule, many of Egypt's fault lines have come to the surface. Coptic Christians and Muslim fundamentalists have fought pitched battles in the streets. Unknown assailants have bombed the natural gas pipeline to Israel three times, symbolic strikes at a hated accord that Egyptians often blame for high prices at home. ...