It's not often that inland waterways make headlines, but Egypt's Suez Canal has recently received a lot of attention. The artificial canal that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea is part of the Silk Road, which enables travel between Europe and Asia and is an important commerce hub.

The recent glaring focus on the Suez Canal has renewed conversations about the canal's history and the future of inland waterway shipping and navigation, which was formerly only a topic in grade school history books. This should serve as a wake-up call for the industry to fight for additional investment in waterway and maritime logistics infrastructure; canals and waterways like the Suez have long been important in trade and will continue to be for centuries.

Several west-east traveling canals were built in ancient times to facilitate transit and shipping between the Nile River and the Red Sea. Several Egyptian pharaohs directed the construction of these canals around the year 200 BC, and successive rulers and explorers built on that foundation.

The Rise of the Suez Canal

Until Napoleon's reign, this went on for approximately 4,000 years. The French Emperor proposed the construction of a north-south canal connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. Despite the fact that his design was expensive and time-consuming, the concept of a north-south canal was kept alive by experts who were asked to assess its feasibility.

In the mid-nineteenth century, a scheme was hatched, and French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps founded The Suez Canal Company to manage construction and maintain control of the canal for the next 88 years. The canal's excavation began in 1859 and has been described as a risky, contentious, and hotly contested undertaking from the outset.

The first passage through the Suez Canal took place in November of 1869, and while there was much fuss to commemorate the occasion, the completed project was far from what its designers had envisioned. The canal's financial load was enhanced by lower-than-expected transit, and political and technical obstacles remained. Despite all of this, and despite remaining control concerns, the canal had a near-instantaneous and favorable impact on global trade.

For the next century or so, the canal was engulfed in world diplomacy struggle, exacerbated by local and global instability. From 1956 to 1979, the Suez Canal was also the setting for a number of major world events, including foreign military attacks, political upheavals, and natural disasters.

Recent Waterway Problems in Shipping

The Suez Channel remained reasonably calm until 2021, when the container ship Ever Given ran aground, blocking the canal and causing a massive supply chain issue. The blockade lasted six days and prevented international traffic from entering or exiting the canal. Economists were relieved it didn't persist much longer, fearing it would have hampered global trade for months, if not years. As things stand, the stumbling block has cost hundreds of millions (if not billions) in losses and delayed shipments, and the supply chain will undoubtedly be affected.

The Ever Given disaster could not have been predicted, and it has caused many corporations to take a second look at their shipping practices, as well as a demand to upgrade outdated maritime and inland canal infrastructure around the world. They're wondering how a single ship can stymie global trade and how to improve logistics to ensure that their systems are future-proof.

It's uncertain how long the supply chain will take to recover from the Ever Given, but there are steps that may be taken to reduce the danger of anything similar happening again. Other large ports and rivers hurried to defend their navigation channels and make other modes of transportation, such as rail or truck, more accessible. Should the supply chain come to a halt again, businesses are increasing warehouse storage space to bolster inventory capacity.

One of the most important things we can take away from the Suez Canal is that waterways play an important role in how we do business. It can serve a variety of purposes, from its historic history to its future significance in global trade.