At certain times traffic is saturated by the work

The Straits of Malacca near Singapore, which links the Indian Ocean and the sea of China and the Pacific, is one of these global sea locks that may cause problems. This passage is one of the most important sea lanes to international trade in raw materials from Africa and Australia, and Middle East oil. He took a strategic importance of first-order by being the first supply of the Japan Road, Taiwan or the Korea in South China. However, its closest point, the order of 2 to 3 kilometres wide, raises serious problems of trafficking. "With 75,000 vessels per year, the Strait reached its limits." "Beyond 100,000 ships, it become very complicated for maritime traffic," said Paul Tourret, Director of the higher Institute of maritime economy (Isemar). As Malacca is also limited by only 23 metres water depth. The maximum capacity is that of the "Malaccamax" of 18,000 TEU (equivalent twenty feet) and 300,000 heavy tons (DWT). For Luc Portier, responsible for studies in the shipowner CMA CGM, "more than the Strait, is the approach of Singapore off the coast which is often clogged." If the Strait of Sunda between Java and Sumatra, cannot relieve the traffic of Malacca because its low depth of water, workarounds are in the study. "The Thailand has already proposed several projects of canal through the isthmus of Kra, South of the country", said the Director of the Isemar. Another alternative would be to build a pipeline across the isthmus, to transport oil to ships waiting on the other side, as was done for the Suez canal.

Problematic passages

If the Egyptian canal today no problem of congestion, his Panama counterpart, on the other side of the planet, sometimes saturated due to expansion. "This book built locks to allow the passage of container of 12.500 TEU against current vessels of 5,000 TEUS," stated Paul Tourret. "At certain times, traffic is saturated by the work." "Priority is for fee and depends on the number of passages that the company made", reflects Luc Portier. But the expansion of Panama will better connect exchanges between Pacific and Atlantic, and direct access to the coast Chinese goods is the United States.

Another passage concerns is, in Europe, the Straits of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles between Mediterranean and Black Sea. "Their width does not exceed 700 to 900 metres and they constitute a permanent risk of congestion of traffic and especially pollution accident for the 60,000 ships about to spend each year," said Paul Tourret, of Saint-Nazaire. The danger lies in the nature of the some 100 million tonnes of hydrocarbons that pass each year. "With the development of the countries bordering the Black Sea, these Straits often arrive at saturation." "Traffic is particularly prohibited the night and the size of the ships is limited," confirms Luc Portier. To relieve the annual passage of some 10,000 oil, an alternative solution is envisaged. "It would be to create a pipeline under the Black Sea via the Bulgaria to the Aegean Sea and the Greece," explains Paul Tourret.

In the rest of the world, there is no other major problems of congestion. In the Strait of Hormuz, at the end of the Persian Gulf between Oman and the Iran, the risk is more political and in that of Bab-el-Mandeb, between Djibouti and the Yemen, it is rather linked to piracy. Finally in Europe, "the le passage passage of the pas de Calais in the North Sea is an area difficult, intense traffic, merchant ships, fishing boats and car-ferry", said Luc Portier. But the traffic remains fluid.