This is up from $442.8m in November, Egypt's state information website said.

TradeWinds reported in October that a Royal Boskalis Westminster-led consortium had secured a contract to construct part of the ‘new’ Suez Canal.

The deal is worth $1.5bn and will be split equally between the four partners which in addition to Boskalis includes Van Oord, Abu Dhabi-based NMDC and Jan de Nul.

The