Egypt is laying plans to build a state shipping company in support of increasing trade among African countries, crucial for the continent’s industrialization. This is part of Egypt’s Lake Victoria–Mediterranean Sea Navigational Line initiative, which includes the countries of the Nile Basin and East Africa, to create a powerful transport and development corridor. The aim is to overcome the fact that shipping is controlled by European and Asian shipping companies, which plan operations for maximum profit, making it more expensive and inefficient to ship cargoes among African nations. This undermines the African Union’s goal of increasing internal trade from the current 15 to 20 percent to the European average of 50 to 60 percent. Increasing intra-African trade also supports de-dollarization. The only countries with national shipping lines are Ethiopia and Ghana, which operate only a handful of bulk carriers.
With its rapid industrial development, Egypt is taking a pan-African approach and is seeking to increase its exports and imports from Africa. It also has a strong shipbuilding potential with Alexandria Shipyards, owned by the Egyptian Ministry of Defense, capable of building almost all classes of ships, including bulk and general cargo ships, warships, and utility vessels of all types. Following an upgrading of the yard in cooperation with China Shipbuilding Trading Co., it can now build ships as large as 57,000 DWT.
According to Egyptian media sources, the Egyptian transportation ministry plans on launching several shipping lines linking Egypt with ports in East and West Africa to increase cargo volumes from 185 million tons in the current fiscal year to 400 million tons by 2029-2030.
The first step in this effort has been to establish an Egyptian shipping hub in the Red Sea port of Djibouti. In December 2025, an Egyptian consortium led by the Egyptian state-owned Holding Company for Maritime and Land Transport and Green Horn Holding, owned by the Djibouti port, signed a terms-and-conditions agreement to build a new, multipurpose terminal in Djibouti. The port is not only key for the Horn of Africa but also as a transhipment port for Asia.
A long-term land-lease agreement was signed between El Sewedy Electric and its joint venture, El Sewedy Logistics Djibouti, with the Djibouti Ports and Free Zones Authority (DPFZA) and the Khor Ambado Free Zone Company (KAFZCO). The deal will create a regional logistics E-hub to expand trade and facilitate Egyptian companies’ access to regional markets. El Sewedy is a very large Egyptian electrical engineering firm involved in big projects across Africa and South West Asia.
The next step should be creating a shipping line linking Alexandria with the East African ports of Mombasa in Kenya and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, followed by one linking Alexandria with the ports of Toamasina in Madagascar and Maputo in Mozambique. A third line would link the port and industrial hub of Ain Sokhna at the southern entrance of the Suez Canal and East Port Said, on the north end of the Canal, to several West African ports, including ports in Mauritania, Senegal, and Ghana.
