Egypt completes trial run of new Suez Canal extension

Egypt said on Saturday it had successfully tested a new 10 km channel near the southern end of the Suez Canal, even as its revenue from the waterway has plunged since Yemen’s Houthi militants began attacking vessels in the Red Sea.

The Suez Canal Authority said in a statement that during a trial run two ships passed through a new stretch of the canal’s two-way section without incident.

Following the 2021 grounding of the container ship Ever Given that blocked the vital waterway for six days, Egypt accelerated plans to extend the second channel in the southern reaches of the canal and widen the existing channel.

Its revenue from the waterway, the gateway to the shortest route between Europe and Asia, has nevertheless tumbled since Yemen’s Houthi militants began attacking ships in the Red Sea in November 2023 in what they say is solidarity with Palestinian militants in Gaza.