The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) held talks with German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd to strengthen cooperation and increase vessel transits through the canal, as the carrier monitors security developments in the Red Sea and considers gradually resuming additional services.
Osama Rabie, Chairperson of the SCA, met with Juan Pablo Richards, Hapag-Lloyd’s regional head for Southern Europe, at the authority’s headquarters in Ismailia to discuss cooperation and prospects for expanding the company’s use of the waterway.
Rabie affirmed the canal’s readiness to receive various shipping services, highlighting the authority’s ongoing efforts to develop maritime services and modernise its fleet to meet customers’ requirements.
He expressed the authority’s interest in the full return of Hapag-Lloyd’s shipping services to the canal, stressing the importance of such a move to sustaining global supply chains amid geopolitical challenges and rapid changes in the maritime transport industry.
Richards praised the longstanding cooperation between Hapag-Lloyd and the SCA, as well as the noticeable improvement in the services provided to the maritime transport industry.
He said Hapag-Lloyd continues to monitor developments in the Red Sea and maritime safety indicators to determine appropriate adjustments to its sailing schedules, amid the gradual resumption of vessel transits through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Suez Canal.
Richards added that additional Hapag-Lloyd services are expected to resume transiting the canal in the coming period, supplementing the two services already operating through the waterway to and from Asia.
The discussions also covered potential cooperation in new areas, including maritime training. Richards highlighted opportunities for collaboration between the SCA’s Maritime Training and Simulation Academy and Damietta Alliance Container Terminal, also known as Tahya Misr 1, at Damietta Port.
The proposed cooperation could include training for ship captains, with Hapag-Lloyd among the major investors in the terminal.