Cairo: The giant container vessel blocking the Suez Canal has been at least partly freed, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation, the first step toward getting one of the world’s most important trade arteries moving again.
Ever Given’s bow has been partially moved and the operation to free it completely is continuing, said the people, asking not to be identified given they’re not authorized to speak to media. The comments come after maritime services provider Inchcape Shipping Services said in an email that the vessel had been refloated at about 4:30 a.m. local time in Egypt and was being secured.
Taiwan-based Evergreen Line, the time charterer of the vessel, wasn’t immediately able to comment. The Suez Canal Authority didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A total of 10 tug boats were taking part in the pre-dawn rescue effort, the authority said earlier in a statement.
There was no immediate clarity on the crucial question of when traffic in the canal will restart. The ship has a damaged hull and it’s not clear how soon it will be able to clear the way for other vessels to pass.
Ever Given — which is longer than the canal is wide and was wedged across the waterway — has been stuck since Tuesday, causing a backlog of hundreds of ships and snarling global supply lines that were already under pressure. Salvage teams have been using tugs and dredgers in the efforts to extract the ship’s bow from the sandy bank where it had been lodged at least five meters in.
Once the vessel has been cleared, authorities will work to allow traffic to resume through the canal that’s a conduit for about 12% of world trade. At last count, 450 vessels were stuck, waiting or headed to the waterway. Others have diverted to the longer route around the southern tip of Africa.
Shipping experts still anticipate already-stretched ocean freight markets will see even more tightness over the coming months because of disrupted schedules and the uneven wave of cargo that will hit ports down the line.
“The dominoes have been toppled,” Lars Jensen, chief executive of SeaIntelligence Consulting in Copenhagen, wrote on social media over the weekend. “The delays and re-routing, which have already happened, will cause ripple effects on both vessels and empty equipment, which will be felt for several months.”
The Suez Canal Authority released footage on Sunday showing workers fighting to free the #EverGiven by removing part of the canal's bank.
“The coming 24 hours will be crucial,” said Peter Berdowski of Boskalis, which is part of the salvage effort https://t.co/keZiFiLQwU pic.twitter.com/11E82t2YeK
— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) March 28, 2021
Companies from Ikea to Caterpillar Inc. have been affected by the snarl-up and thousands of live animals are stuck on ships in the area. Consumer goods, industrial inputs, and commodities from oil to coffee are caught up in the jam, with Asian exporters and European importers affected most directly.
A rough estimate shows the blockage is holding up about $400 million an hour, based on calculations from Lloyd’s List that suggest westbound traffic is worth around $5.1 billion a day and eastbound traffic is approximately $4.5 billion.
The accident — which happened as the giant vessel tried to navigate the canal with high winds and poor visibility — is another reminder of the fragility of global supply chains that have already been tested by the pandemic. The container industry was already suffering a supply crunch for the truck-size boxes that are now crucial to trade — and operating at full capacity.
The investigation into what went wrong as the Ever Given tried to navigate the narrow waterway continues, as well as the untangling of liabilities and insurance claims. – Bloomberg
Also read: How a desert wind blew $10 billion of the global trade off course
Towards the tail of March in 2021 , world is focused on a major worrisome news from Suez Canal, where ‘ The Ever Given’, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe and owned by a Japanese shipping company, has run aground.
According to news reports, The ‘Ever Given’, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe , ran aground in the morning of Tuesday, 23 March 2021 in the narrow, man-made canal dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula. Vigorous efforts to push the container vessel aside , are yet to bring about marked success as on Thursday, 25 March 2021. This is said to be imperiling shipping worldwide, besides affecting billions of dollars worth of cargo.
In a sign of global turmoil the blockade has caused, the ship’s Japanese owner is reported to have offered a written apology on Thursday, 25 March 2021. A credible answer to the cause of ship getting aground, is not known as yet, though high and strong winds blowing at the appropriate time could be one probable cause. The owner company has reportedly expressed its determination to resolve the issue as early as possible while some are of opinion that it may take days or weeks even to clear the blockade. According to news reports on 28 March 2021, the traffic jam of vessels on waterway outside blocked Suez Canal has increased to over 300. It may be known that the Suez Canal provides a shortest route- link for oil, natural gas , grain and cargo. The closure or blockade could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Mideast, which rely on the Canal route to avoid sailing through Africa.
As said here, the ship involved in the blockade is owned by a Japanese shipping company. As such, it is expected to have primary worry. In this context, it may be apt to refer readers to this Vedic astrology writer’s one of related predictive alerts in article – “ Reading planetary impacts for Japan in coming year 2021” – shared widely with Japanese news media last year on and around 16 September 2020. The related predictive alert reads like this in the article:-
“( 4 ). It seems that some questions relating to marine-industry can be in focus. Sea-food like fish may need attention. Questions of sharing of sea or ocean wealth can crop-up. Some substantial money are likely to be spent to cleanse sea-water from bad-smelling chemicals or even nuclear –related substance. ……………………………………. ……. One or more or all these worrisome concerns mentioned in this paragraph are likely to engage attention in Japan during a period of one and a half month from mid-April to May-end in 2021 ( 15 April to 31 May 2021 )”.
The details brought out here would suggest that the predictive alert , sounded six months prior, has been precisely indicative.
The update as on 29 March is that the ship container the Ever Given has been “partially refloated” in what appears to be a first step to dislodge it from the Suez Canal.