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The MTM Savannah oil and chemical tanker, left, and other cargo vessels wait to enter the Suez Canal in Suez, Egypt, in this file photograph. Picture: BLOOMBERG/ISLAM SAFWAT
1. Deep dive in Suez
The Suez Canal, where one of the world’s largest container ships got stuck last year, is being widened and deepened so that this does not happen again.
Egypt is making an extra 10km accessible to two-way traffic, and widening and deepening another 30km, allowing 28% more vessels to pass through than the 20,694 ships last year.
The canal generated about R103bn in fees in 2021 and volumes are expected to be higher in 2022, despite a 6% increase in tolling charges from this month.
2. Electric Lightning
Ford has begun building an electric version of its F-series bakkie, which has topped the US sales charts for decades. It has been described as the biggest upheaval in the motor industry since Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908.
Ford is hoping that Americans’ love for bakkies (pick-up trucks in their lingo) will continue, with the F-150 Lightning to compete with Tesla in the electric vehicle market. One new owner is pleased with his electric bakkie because it gives him more room to pack tools where the engine used to be. The Lightning will sell for about R620,000 in SA and has a range of 370km.
3. Cardboard cutout
The Orlando Museum of Art in Florida, in the US, is embroiled in a controversy over its exhibition of paintings said to be worth $100m. The collection may be made up of fakes.
The paintings are said to have been by US artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who used layers of mixed media painted and drawn onto slabs of scavenged cardboard. One of the paintings is on a piece of FedEx cardboard that the company began using in 1994. Trouble is Basquiat died in 1988, of a drug overdose.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
DINNER PARTY INTEL: Suez Canal to be widened
1. Deep dive in Suez
The Suez Canal, where one of the world’s largest container ships got stuck last year, is being widened and deepened so that this does not happen again.
Egypt is making an extra 10km accessible to two-way traffic, and widening and deepening another 30km, allowing 28% more vessels to pass through than the 20,694 ships last year.
The canal generated about R103bn in fees in 2021 and volumes are expected to be higher in 2022, despite a 6% increase in tolling charges from this month.
2. Electric Lightning
Ford has begun building an electric version of its F-series bakkie, which has topped the US sales charts for decades. It has been described as the biggest upheaval in the motor industry since Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908.
Ford is hoping that Americans’ love for bakkies (pick-up trucks in their lingo) will continue, with the F-150 Lightning to compete with Tesla in the electric vehicle market. One new owner is pleased with his electric bakkie because it gives him more room to pack tools where the engine used to be. The Lightning will sell for about R620,000 in SA and has a range of 370km.
3. Cardboard cutout
The Orlando Museum of Art in Florida, in the US, is embroiled in a controversy over its exhibition of paintings said to be worth $100m. The collection may be made up of fakes.
The paintings are said to have been by US artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who used layers of mixed media painted and drawn onto slabs of scavenged cardboard. One of the paintings is on a piece of FedEx cardboard that the company began using in 1994. Trouble is Basquiat died in 1988, of a drug overdose.
Widening of Suez Canal in Egypt under way months after Ever Given got stuck
Ford working on smarter warning alerts
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Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.