UNITSKY STRING TECHNOLOGIES, INC. HAS PRESENTED AN ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORT SOLUTION FOR THE SUEZ CANAL

unicont

UNITSKY STRING TECHNOLOGIES, INC. HAS PRESENTED AN ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORT SOLUTION FOR THE SUEZ CANAL

The Suez Canal blockage has set out a long simmering problem: logistics operators wailing about a high cost of marine transportation have fully realized that it is insecure and liable to failure as well.

Almost four days’ blockage of the Canal where nearly 30% of the world’s container traffic and 12% of the whole globe trade are taken place has resulted in losses of about $9.6 bln per day and a jump in oil prices by 6%. It is obvious, that simply widening of the canal bed will be not enough to solve the problem. So, the logistics operators are searching for alternative ways to conventional marine transportation through the Suez Canal.

And the first such alternative transport solution was proposed by Unitsky String Technologies, Inc. Its Prestressed Track Structure™ (PTS™) technology provides overhead electric transport complexes with ultralight structure (based on the string rail) where the Unicont® electropods carry standard TEU and FEU containers in both directions along the Canal.

Unicont® includes two pulling modules capable of transporting standard ISO-containers with a length of 20 and 40 feet. The company’s unmanned container carriers are put in motion by the electric traction drive powered up from the overhead line or on-board energy storage device.

Due to this simple and innovative solution, the UST cargo transport complex located along the whole Suez Canal initially gains the most significant advantages compared to conventional transport.

Thus, according to preliminary estimates, the cost of the UST overhead electric transport system constructed along the Suez Canal at the extent of 156.4 km would be $10M per km (excluding the rolling stock and loading-unloading terminals) that is 5 times less than it was spent on the construction of the Canal itself.

The complex would be capable of transporting cargo at a speed of 80 km/h that is 5 times faster than by vessels. As a result, the time of TEU container delivery from Port Said to Port Tawfiq would decrease from 14 hours till 2 hours while the loading-unloading process would take no more than 65 seconds.

“The situation in the Suez Canal showed the need to diversify the global economy logistics. We are pleased to have contributed to its strengthening through our innovative transport solutions”, — Nadezhda Kosareva (СЕО, Unitsky String Technologies, Inc.).