ARSOM-KAOW The Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences Permanent InternationalAssociation for Navigation Congresses Port of The World Association for Waterbome A Antwerp Transport lnfrastructure International Colloquium INTEROCEANIC CANALS AND WORLD SEABORNE TRADE: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE (Brussels, 7-9 June 2012) Guest Editors: J. CHARLIER, C. DE MEYER & H. PAELINCK Financially supported by FONDATION beis po Sefacil tnrs LOCIBT10UC • PonTUA!AC • MARlfl"'C LA Ulf.ITil CHUCHUDE The Belgian Science Policy Office Fondation Sefacil Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique 2015 ACADEMIE ROYALE KONINKLIJKE ACADEMIE DES VOOR SCIENCES o'ÜUTRE-MER ÛVERZEESE WETENSCHAPPEN Avenue Louise 231 Louizalaan 231 B-1050 Bruxelles (Belgique) B-1050 Brussel (België) Tél. 02.538.02.1 1 Tel. 02.538.02. 11 Fax 02.539.23.53 Fax 02.539.23.53 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.kaowarsom.be Web: www.kaowarsom.be ISBN 978-90-756-5257-4 D/2015/0 149/4 CONTENTS J. CHARLIER, C. DE MEYER & H. PAELINCK. - Introduction ........ 5 lnteroceanic Canals in Context G. CAUDE. - Le röle de l'AIPCN dans la conception des projets majeurs d'infrastructure de navigation maritime et fluviale et dans l'orientation de ses travaux au bénéfice des pays émergents. 13 C. DUCRUET. - The Polarization of Global Container Flows by Inter- oceanic Canals. 27 P. DRANK.IER. - Connecting China Overseas through the Marine Arc­ tic: Le gal lmplications and Geopolitical Considerations for Arctic Shipping..................... 45 D. DE LAME. - Connected by Oceans, Parted by Land............ 61 S. A. RrcH. - "Shiver Me Timbers ! "No Cedar Ships in the Medieval Mediterranean? . 69 The Suez Canal in between the Gibraltar and Malacca Straits N. MAREI & J. CHARLIER. - Le canal de Suez à l'heure de la conte- neurisation . 83 N. MAREI. - Le détroit de Gibraltar, un carrefour international réactivé. 109 E. CARREY. - Piracy in the Indian Ocean, a Strategie or a Criminal Threat?. 121 The Panama and Nicaragua Canals Y. Aux & J. CHARLIER. - Le canal de Panama à l 'heure new panamax. 141 P. HALL. - Waiting to Transit the Isthmus: Vancouver's Ports and the Panama Canal . 173 4 CONTENTS D. M. Bosco. - The Nicaragua Interoceanic Crossing: Past, Present and Future Opportunities for Nicaragua and World Commerce . 191 M. C. KAUTZ. - Project for the Construction of the Grand Inter­ Oceanic Nicaragua Canal . 205 International Colloquium Interoceanic Canals and World Seaborne Trade: Past, Present and Future Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences Port of Antwerp World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure Brussels, 7-9 June 2012 pp. 5-9 Introduction by Jacques CHARLIER*, Christian DE MEYER* * & Honoreus PAELINCK On June 7-9, 2012 the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences organized an international conference in Brussels about "Interoceanic Canals and World Seabome Trade: Past, Present and Future", the proceedings of which are published hereafter at a particularly interesting time, i.e. a few months after the opening of a new section on the Suez Canal, and also a few months before the inauguration of new locks on the Panama Canal. These two canals are the most important artificial waterways ever built, and they had at the time dramatic consequences for the world seabome trade, which is still highly constrained by these interoceanic canals; however, they are not the only maritime canals built and other artificial waterways are also considered nowadays, which future impact might also be significant. When the conference took place, no firm decision had been taken yet about the planned Nicaragua Canal, but the green light to this major project was announced recently, and interoceanic canals are more than ever a subject of scientific and geopolitical interest. A Typology of Maritime Canals As figure 1 shows, there are two major types of choke points where ships engaged into oceanic and regional trades converge: natural straits and man­ made canals. On the one hand, straits were given to seafarers by nature and at least one of these, namely the Malacca Strait, is even more important nowadays than the above-mentioned Suez and Panama Canals for the world • Members of the Academy. 6 J. CHARLIER ET AL. !nSef'99ttnlssto+ Gibr8llar © Suez(1U9) @)Kiel (1895 ) @ Ba,,_...Manbed @ @Panama(1914) ) @ Ocwet @ @ 8ooptlotvs(- Malooca (Ï) © @ Nöcor>gua (plannod) UAE (ptannod) Forrnou (Ê)Om-... © Concept J. Chatllet &designS.Mbatchou Kni (ptannod) Oepa"""'ntGeog of raphy UCL -2015 Fig. 1. The world's most important maritime canals and straits. - seaborne trade. On the other hand, artificial waterways, built with or without locks according to the local topographical conditions, were or will be added to the world shipping network in order to offerother significant shortcuts on interoceanic or regional routes. The Malacca Strait became the world's most important natura! strait as a consequence of the economie rise of Asian Pacific Rim in the last sixty years (first with Japan, then the newly-industrialized countries and more recently China). Besides being affected to a certain extent by piracy, it is suffering a physical limitation because of its depth, and a series of very large tankers or bulkers avoid it by sailing instead around Indonesia. Further to the north, the Formosa Strait is also a major strait in maritime geography, not only because of its commercial importance but also because of its geopolitical dimension, with the threats of a conflict between China and Taiwan. Another two Asian straits, located for their part in the Indian Ocean, are also well documented because of their commercial and geopolitical impor­ tance, i.e. the Ormuz and Bab-el-Manbed Straits. The first one is often referred to first of all because it is the gateway to the Persian Gulf and its oil resources, whereas the second one also plays a capital role for the container traffic between Europe and Asia via the Suez Canal; piracy is a significant INTRODUCTION 7 contemporary problem in this area as well. And finally in Europe, there are two other straits to be mentioned in this short list of the world' s most impor­ tant straits, i.e. the Gibraltar Strait in between Europe and Africa, and the Dover Strait in between Western Europe and Britain. There are of course many other straits used nowadays by commercial shipping, but they are more of the regional type, and listing them here would be out of scope; some might, however, draw a lot of attention in the future, with the development of Arctic shipping through the North-East and North-West Passages. There are currently two major interoceanic canals, through the Suez and Panama isthmuses; by offering a large range of alternatives to the shipping lines, they are more complementing each other than competing each other. On the contrary, the planned Nicaragua Canal will be in frontalcompetition with the Panama Canal if and when this ambitious project materializes. The same can be said if another interoceanic canal project, namely the Kra canal through the Kra isthmus in Thailand (fig. 2), materializes as well. In the latter case, the idea behind this project is also to offer a shortcut between two oceans, by bypassing the Malacca Strait, especially for the container ships (bypassing thus also the port of Singapore) and for very large tankers; however, in this case, a pipeline might be a much cheaper altemative, and there is much debate in Thailand about this, including - as for the Nicaragua Canal - about the environmental impact of such a gigantic artificial waterway. Our survey of maritime canals would not be comprehensive without men­ tioning the more regional canals connecting seas rather than oceans, such as the Kiel canal in between the North and Baltic Seas (with also a military background as for the Panama Canal) or the much smaller Corinth canal bypassing the Peloponnesian peninsula in Greece. Two more regional canals might be built in the future, respectively in Turkey to the north of the Bosphorus Strait (to avoid the risk of a major accident for tankers when transiting this strait on both sides of which the Istanbul metropolis is located) and in the United Arab Emirates to the south of the Ormuz Strait (to avoid any military threat from Iran, but this is the least realistic project among all those listed here). Genera( Structure of the Proceedings Twelve of the papers given at the conference, whose speakers kindly provided a final manuscript (in English or French), have been included in these proceedings. They have been divided as follows into three separate sections : 8 J. CHARLIER ET AL. N THAILAND A Andaman South Sea China Sea IND/AN OCEAN INDONESIA 0 200 400 800 Kilometers -•-=::::J--c:::::=----- \ Design: Mbatchou, Department of Geography, • 2015 Malacca Adapted S.trom Worid Facts Book. and M. OorrbeckUCL er (2010) Strait ·c1A Fig. 2. - The planned Kra canal in between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Section one (lnteroceanic Canals in Context) includes five papers about (1) the role of an international organization, such as PIANC, in the design of a major new navigation project (by Geoffroy CAUDE); (2) the polarization of global container flows by interoceanic canals (by César DucRUET); (3) the planned overseas connections of China through the maritime Arctic (by Petra DRANKIER); (4) ethnosociological considerations about the unifying role of the world ocean (by Danielle DE LAME); and (5) cedar ships in the Medieval Mediterranean (by Sara RICH). INTRODUCTION 9 - Section two (The Suez Canal in between the Gibraltar and Malacca Straits) includes three papers about (1)