Editing Suez Canal (section)

=== Capacity ===
The canal allows passage of ships up to {{cvt|20|m}} [[draft (hull)|draft]] or 240,000 [[deadweight ton]]s and up to a height of {{cvt|68|m}} above water level and a maximum [[beam (nautical)|beam]] of {{cvt|77.5|m|0}} under certain conditions.<ref name="suezcanal.gov.eg">Suez Canal Authority http://www.suezcanal.gov.eg {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140613040705/http://www.suezcanal.gov.eg/ |date=13 June 2014 }}</ref><ref name="Characteristics"/> The canal can handle more traffic and larger ships than the [[Panama Canal]], as [[Suezmax]] dimensions are greater than both [[Panamax]] and [[New Panamax]]. Some supertankers are too large to traverse the canal. Others can offload part of their cargo onto a canal-owned ship to reduce their draft, transit, and reload at the other end of the canal. On 15 April 2021 Egyptian authorities announced that they would widen the southern section of the Suez Canal to improve the efficiency of the canal. The plan mainly covers about {{Convert|30|km}} from Suez to the Great Bitter Lake. It will be widened by {{Convert|40|m}} and the maximum depth will be increased from about {{Convert|20|m}} to about {{Convert|22|m}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://newsupd.com/2021/05/12/egypt-announced-the-widening-of-the-suez-canal-expected-to-be-completed-within-two-years/|title=Egypt announced the widening of the Suez Canal, expected to be completed within two years – News Update|date=12 May 2021|access-date=12 May 2021|archive-date=12 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512231050/https://newsupd.com/2021/05/12/egypt-announced-the-widening-of-the-suez-canal-expected-to-be-completed-within-two-years/|url-status=dead}}</ref>