The Suez Canal in Egypt has been blocked in both directions since Tuesday, March 23, 2021. One of the world’s largest container ships, the Ever Given, on its way from Asia to Europe, became grounded and turned sideways, effectively blocking all vessel traffic in the canal. As of 29th March, the container ship has been freed, but it is still unclear when it'll be able to continue its journey.
Update as of 30.03.2021, 02:00 pm (CET)
The Suez Canal Authority and salvors were able to free and dislodge the Ever Given ship from the banks of the canal. Now, the vessel is being towed to the Great Bitter Lake for safety inspections.
Approximately 370 ships have idled in a quede on both sides of the blockage over six days of traffic suspension, and this unfortunate event will continue to impact global supply chains in the coming weeks.
“Overall, we expect lingering weighty disruptions to the Asia-Europe traffic in particular, but also other trades in general and in terms of sailing schedule reliability, European port congestions, resulting delays and an increasing lack of equipment,” said Andreas Krueger, Vice President, Head of Global Ocean Freight Operations, DGF. “It can be expected that carriers will cut down on the usually granted free times for detention, demurrage and storage. We are fully committed to our customers and are ensuring that supply chain integrity is safeguarded in the best way possible.”
Update as of 29.03.2021, 09:00 am (CET)
The giant container ship floats again
After being wedged across the Suez Canal for almost a week, Ever Given has been freed from the shoreline. Rescue workers used tug boats to wrench the back of the ship from the canal bank. The rear end, which had been 4m from the shore, was now 102m clear, the Suez Canal Authority said, adding that the boat had been fully refloated. The course of the 400m long container ship has been corrected by 80%, according to the Suez Canal Authority.
A Bloomberg report said, “While the ship is floating again, it wasn’t immediately clear how soon the waterway would be open to traffic, or how long it will take to clear the logjam of more than 450 ships stuck, waiting and enroute to the Suez that have identified it as their next destination.”
The Suez Canal is one of the world's busiest trade routes and is considered to be the shortest link between the east and the west due to its unique geographic location. The blockage at the canal is consequently impacting all other vessel traffic on the Suez Canal and each day, is delaying goods worth some $9 billion from passing through the waterway.
A potential alternative for shipping companies is to choose the route around the Cape of Good Hope, Africa. This means a significantly longer journey of additional 7,000 km and several days additional transit time, depending on chosen vessel speed.
The 400 meter long container ship is almost the same length as the height of the Empire State Building. After an unsuccessful attempt to refloat the vessel, salvage and marine engineers have shifted their focus to removing sand and mud from around the port side of the bow where a specialized suction dredger will soon begin work.
Shoei Kisen Kaisha, the owner of the Evergreen Marine-operated containership, has apologized for the disruption the blockage has caused to global trade. “We are trying to resolve the situation as soon as possible, but dislodging the Ever Given is proving to be extremely difficult.”
You can read the statement given by Evergreen Marine Corp
(the images were fetched from the internet)
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