SCZone participates in Maersk’s first methanol vessel naming ceremony

CAIRO - 17 September 2023: Chairman of the General Authority for the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) Walid Gamal el Din participated in the official ceremony to announce the arrival of the ship Laura Maersk to its final stop in Denmark. Laura Maersk completed its sea voyage of 21 thousand kilometers as the world’s first green methanol-powered container ship.

The vessel started its journey from South Korea passing by Singapore and Asia and last month passed through the Suez Canal on its way to Europe. During its pass through the Suez Canal, the ship refueled green methanol at East Port Said port by OCI Global.

At the ceremony, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Robert Maersk Uggla and Chairman of SCZone Walid Gamal el Din met to discuss the work of C2X, which will soon begin its work in Egypt’s Suez Canal and Spain to produce green methanol to reduce emissions resulting from marine tankers, especially cargo ships. C2X aims to have an annual capacity of green methanol production of more than 3 million tons by 2030.

The meeting also discussed a framework agreement between the SCZone, the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, the New and Renewable Energy Authority, and Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company at the beginning of next October to establish a green fuel production facility in SCZone’s Sokhna area.

Maersk had previously signed a preliminary agreement with Egypt during the COP27 climate summit in 2022 to invest $15 billion to set up clean fuel projects.