Anatolia said that the Egyptian Suez Canal faces potential threats, as Nicaragua proceeds with the establishment of its navigation project parallel to the Panama Canal, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The report added that this project may affect the foreign exchange revenues of Egypt and Panama.
The report noted that with the emergence of a new player in the maritime transport arena, competition will increase between shipping channels around the world, especially with the revival of the new Silk Road project linking China to Europe via the Gulf.
Foreign revenues from marine service charges are an important source of foreign exchange, both in Egypt and Panama, and in Nicaragua in the future.
Revenue from the Suez Canal rose 5.4 percent year-on-year in the 2018-2019 fiscal year to June, reaching 5.9 billion. Panama Canal revenues reached $ 2.5 billion last year.
New channel
Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega said in mid-August that his government was moving to build a naval channel between the eastern Atlantic and the western Pacific.
He said the cost of the canal would be $ 50 billion. It will be wider and deeper than the Panama Canal, which is currently the only link between the two oceans, Anatolia reported.
If Nicaragua succeeds in building the canal, negative effects will affect commercial traffic on the Panama Canal, as well as the Egyptian Suez Canal, the Anatolia report states.
The proposal of the Nicaraguan Canal dates back to the early 19th century. The United States contemplated the establishment of the canal, but its purchase of the Panama Canal from France at the beginning of the 20th century pushed it back.
However, the serious decision to implement the project was made only on June 13, 2013 after the approval of the Nicaraguan Parliament.
Nicaragua granted a concession to a company owned by a Chinese businessman, 72 months ago, to carry out technical and environmental studies ahead of the actual start of construction of the canal. The concession ended last month with no results.
Nicaragua is located in Central America, bordered to the north by Guatemala and to the south by Costa Rica, with a population of about 6.2 million.
Huge ships and tankers use the Suez Canal for trade between East Asia and the Americas because of the inability of the Panama Canal to receive such a volume of ships.
In recent years, the Suez Canal Authority has announced offers and discounts for ships and tankers in transit, in an effort to improve revenues and encourage transit.
Egypt expects the canal's revenue from ship traffic to rise to $ 13.2 billion a year by 2023, after the opening of the new Suez Canal (Al Tafaria) on August 6, 2015.