Giant Ship Blocking The Suez Canal Is Now Afloat

March 29, 2021

Salvage teams managed to partially free and refloat the Ever Given—the mega-ship that was blocking the Suez Canal— early on Monday, a week after the giant vessel ran aground and blocked one of the world’s most important cargo routes.

The Suez Canal Authority announced the ship had been sucessfully refloated following a set of push and tow manuevers by tug boats which have resulted in the restoration of 80% of the vessel’s direction.

The Ever Given’s stern is now 102 meters (335 feet) from the canal’s western bank compared to just 4 meters previously and a video tweeted by Egypt Today Magazine shows at least a part of the ship’s bow has been dislodged from the canal’s eastern bank aswell.

The maneuvering of the vessel resumed at 11:30 am local time, during high tide, and the tug boats are now moving the ship to-and-fro to dislodge it completely, Bloomberg reported.

Osama Rabie, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority said navigation through the canal will be resumed immediately after the ship’s direction is restored.

Once fully dislodged the Even Given will be directed to a waiting area in the Bitter Lakes for technical inspection.

367. That’s the total number of ships that are waiting to pass through the canal as part of a growing traffic jam on both sides of one of the world’s busiest shipping routes, according to Leth Industries.

Around 13% of global maritime trade transits through the canal every year and Lloyd’s List Intelligence estimated that $9.6 billion of goods typically move through the canal both ways on a daily basis.

“Egyptians have today succeeded in ending the crisis of the stranded ship at the Suez Canal, despite the huge technical complication that has surrounded the process from every side,” Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said in a statement.

The Suez Canal has been blocked since Tuesday after the Ever Given veered into its east side and ran aground during stormy weather on March 23. The 1,300 foot long ship—one of the largest cargo ships in the world—was crossing through the canal from Yantian, China, to Rotterdam, Netherlands, when it got stuck. The blocking of the canal has put severe strain on the global supply chain which was already suffering due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Source: Forbes
Image Source: Getty Images