Official Operation: RSCT Opens at Egypt’s Sokhna Port—A Key Node, a Key Move by COSCO SHIPPING Ports in the Era of “Certainty-Driven Supply Chains”

On January 15, 2026 (local time), the Red Sea Container Terminals (RSCT) at Sokhna Port, located at the southern entrance of the Suez Canal in Egypt, officially commenced operations.

The project is jointly invested in and operated by COSCO SHIPPING Ports, Hutchison Ports, and CMA Terminals. Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Industry Kamel Al-Wazir, and Walid Gamal El-Din, Chairman of the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), attended the ceremony alongside shareholders’ representatives including Zhu Tao, Chairman of COSCO SHIPPING Ports, marking the milestone.

Sokhna: A Strategic Gateway on a World-Class Corridor
Sokhna Port is one of Egypt’s premier port zones. It sits at the southern entrance of the Suez Canal, around 120 km east of Cairo, adjacent to the Suez Northwest Economic Zone (SCZone), and at a key junction where the main East-West trade corridor overlaps with Egypt’s industrial belt. RSCT involves total investment of about USD 375 million. Phase I includes a 1,200-meter quay with an 18-meter water depth, and is designed for annual throughput of 1.7 million TEU. COSCO SHIPPING Ports holds a 25% stake.

This location means RSCT is not positioned as a standalone terminal, but as a corridor-oriented hub—serving global trunk routes, regional industrial clusters, and multimodal logistics organization. As shippers increasingly stress delivery certainty, inventory turnover, and risk redundancy, the value of a corridor is not only whether it can be used, but whether it can be used steadily, transferred quickly, and connected smoothly. Sokhna’s structural advantage lies in coupling maritime lanes with the port-adjacent industrial-logistics zone and regional road-rail networks.

Semi-Automation and Green Electrification: “Hard Tech” in the Service of Predictability
RSCT is positioned as a flagship infrastructure project under Egypt’s “Vision 2030,” and its start-up is presented as a marker of Egypt’s port-logistics sector entering a semi-automated era. Described as the first container terminal in Egypt to apply remote-controlled crane technology, RSCT is equipped with remote-controlled ship-to-shore (STS) cranes and automated yard gantry cranes, supported by advanced terminal operating systems (TOS) to drive more digitalized and precise workflows.

Its green configuration is also emphasized: the terminal deploys large-scale all-electric cargo-handling equipment, including electric trucks and electric reach stackers, to reduce its carbon footprint and respond to the global sustainability trend.

In Xinde Maritime News’ framing, these are not “equipment showcases,” but capability building around customer pain points. As supply-chain uncertainty rises, customers increasingly expect ports to perform more like industrial production lines: stable throughput, predictable efficiency, responsive exception handling, and traceable information. Semi-automation and digitalization aim to move operations from “experience-based and volatile” toward “process-based and controllable.” Electrification and green operations, meanwhile, offer customers a longer-term low-carbon corridor option as compliance and ESG thresholds continue to rise.

Linking with Regional—and Global—Hub Network
Xinde Maritime News understands that COSCO SHIPPING Ports has already established the Suez Canal Container Terminal (SCCT) at Port Said. With SCCT at the canal’s northern end and RSCT at the southern end, the launch of RSCT suggests that COSCO SHIPPING Ports has further completed and strengthened its port-logistics network around the Suez Canal. Together, the two terminals can provide a more flexible gateway set-up and redundancy for different route organization, cargo-flow directions, and customer needs.

More broadly, COSCO SHIPPING Ports has stated that the Sokhna terminal will be organically connected with its facilities and port-logistics services in surrounding regions and across its wider global network to form an integrated system, aimed at providing customers with more efficient and cost-effective services. In Xinde Maritime News’ view, this is where “network value” becomes visible: the more strategic the node and the more systematic the network, the more customers’ demand for predictability can be extended from a single terminal segment to a broader end-to-end experience.

COSCO SHIPPING Group: “Building Certainty into Supply-Chain Structures”

To fully understand the strategic value of RSCT, the lens needs to widen to COSCO SHIPPING Group’s broader playbook.

In recent years, the group has repeatedly highlighted an integrated “Shipping + Port + Logistics” service system—where shipping underpins transoceanic trunk legs, ports secure critical hub nodes, and logistics connects the hinterland and enables end-to-end delivery. RSCT represents an incremental capability build-up by the ports arm along a key corridor, and that capability enhancement is increasingly resonating with moves across other group business lines.
 

One example can be found in ocean transport and end-to-end solutions.

Over the past year, COSCO SHIPPING Specialized Carriers has continued to advance a system described as “linerization + nodal layout + localization.” Domestically, it set up East China and North China divisions to establish delivery organizations closer to key industrial clusters. On the product side, it pushed forward “three lines in parallel,” expanding its liner system from five routes to eight, emphasizing that stable frequency can turn “schedule uncertainty” into “predictability.” Overseas, it established a function-integrated, comprehensive supply-chain core node in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, to reinforce the “last mile” and accelerate its transition from a transport provider to a supply-chain partner. The company has also promoted integrated operations—covering global sales, capacity coordination, and supply-chain coordination—under an upgraded “3+4+N” global service architecture.
 

On European hinterland capability, COSCO SHIPPING Group is also strengthening end-to-end logistics by moving closer to inland markets and customers. One example is a newly established investment platform to advance hinterland logistics investment linked to Hamburg, including a proposed acquisition of a majority stake in Zippel. Taken together with the commissioning of RSCT, these moves form a consistent strategic line: using global key nodes and corridor capabilities to turn supply-chain “fragility points” into “controllable points,” and using integrated networks and digital capabilities to shift delivery from merely “achievable” to “predictable and dependable.” For customers, this translates into more stable transport windows, faster port turnarounds, and stronger disruption-recovery capability; for the broader industrial chain, it means higher resilience and a lower risk of uncertainty spilling over.

 

The Practical Meaning of a New Red Sea Node: Stronger Hubs, Deeper Services

The strategic importance of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal corridor needs no elaboration. For shipping and trade-facing companies, however, the key point is this: in periods when corridor volatility, diversions, and shifts in insurance, security, and risk costs overlap, supply chains need not only routes, but also nodes. The stronger the node, the more solid an organizational foundation it can provide for cargo flows amid volatility. And the smarter, greener, and more efficient the node, the more it can help customers lower total end-to-end costs over the long run—while also improving compliance readiness and brand value.
 

RSCT’s commissioning is both another move in COSCO SHIPPING Ports’ Africa footprint and an incremental capability gain for COSCO SHIPPING Group’s integrated strategy along a key corridor. In remarks at the ceremony, Zhu Tao, Chairman of COSCO SHIPPING Ports, said the company remains committed to building a higher-quality, stronger, and more efficient global port network, with Sokhna serving as a key implementation point of that strategy. He added that the terminal will function as an important corridor for trade, enabling seamless cargo flows and further strengthening links between Egypt, China, and global markets. Zhu also highlighted the company’s “The Ports for ALL” brand philosophy, saying it will continue to deepen its global footprint to create value for all stakeholders.
 

As “certainty-driven supply chains” become a core customer demand, ports are no longer merely calling points—they are stabilizers and amplifiers of supply-chain performance. The start-up of RSCT at Sokhna is the latest example of COSCO SHIPPING Ports using smart-green technology and operational capability to reinforce resilience and provide customers with more predictable service expectations.