Word: canallers
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...public posturing and cynicism on both sides masked a subsurface momentum, however gradual, toward an interim agreement on opening the Suez Canal. "There is still life in this possibility," Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban told the Knesset, "even if agreement is not certain." As one high U.S. official put it: "The mirror image on both sides is a desire to move with deliberation in order to avoid the misunderstandings that have marred such efforts in the past...
...canal will probably never regain the vital position of strategic and commercial pre-eminence that it once had. Shippers-and particularly, oil companies-have learned to live without it, chiefly through the use of huge supertankers, which can bring oil from the Persian Gulf to Europe around the Cape of Good Hope more cheaply than the smaller tankers that used to ply the canal. The Trans-Israel Pipeline now transports 19 million tons of oil a year, from Eilat to Ashkelon. Egypt, with French and Italian aid, will begin building its own $210 million pipeline from Port Suez to Alexandria...
...price of living without the canal has come high. The longer voyages around Africa have created a world shipping shortage, vastly inflating charter rates. Some economists estimate that closure has cost consumers in Europe, Japan, and to a lesser extent, the U.S., up to $1 billion a year...
Despite the advent of supertankers, nearly 90% of the world's ships could use the canal if it were to reopen. Even at the prewar depth of 38 ft., vessels of up to 125,000 tons can traverse the waterway in ballast, cutting off twelve days on the round trip between Europe and the Persian Gulf...
Egypt's Suez Canal Authority intends to deepen the canal to 40 ft. within a year after it is reopened. The authority also has ready a plan for enlarging the canal to accommodate larger ships. Estimated cost: up to $600 million. Against that could be placed the increased revenue from tolls. Even in 1966, the last full year of operation, revenues totaled $220 million. A deeper, wider canal could eventually bring Cairo as much as $1 billion a year. Even so, it would require a solid peace agreement between Arabs and Israelis to make the investment worthwhile...