THE SUEZ CRISIS
Giant ship hit by gust of wind shuts vital trade route
A MASSIVE container ship the length of four football pitches has run aground in the Suez Canal – blocking the vital waterway and disrupting global trade.
Oil prices surged amid supply fears and marine experts warned of commodity shortages after the Ever Given shut off one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.
Around 12 per cent of world trade flows through the Egyptian canal connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and crucial for the transport of oil.
At least 30 vessels backed up in the narrow, man-made waterway as eight tugs worked feverishly to free the 1,312ft-long supervessel after it grounded early on Tuesday.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which manages the Ever Given, said all 20 members of the crew were safe and there were “no reports of injuries or pollution”.
The cost of a barrel of oil rose two per cent amid fears the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia could remained blocked for days.
Transport company Evergreen said its leased ship was “hit by a sudden strong wind, causing the hull to deviate, and accidentally hit the bottom and run aground”.
A pilot
Egypt’s from canal authority typically boards a ship to guide it through the 150-year-old waterway, though the ship’s captain retains ultimate authority.
An image posted to Instagram by a user on another waiting cargo ship showed the ship’s bow touching the eastern wall, while its stern looked lodged against the western wall – an extraordinary event that experts say is unprecedented in the canal’s history. A digger appeared to be working on the sand
Sal Mercogliano
bank under its bow in an effort to free it.
An official said tugboats hoped to refloat the ship and that the operation would take at least two days.
The ship ran aground 3.7 miles north of the canal’s southerly mouth, near Suez city, an area of the canal that is a single lane.
Egyptian forecasters said winds hit the area Tuesday, winds gusting up to 30mph.
Some 30 vessels waited at Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake – midway on the canal – while some 40 idled in the Mediterranean near Port Said and another 30 at Suez in the Red Sea. high with
Dr Sal Mercogliano, a former merchant mariner and a US maritime historian, said the Ever Given’s plight could have “huge ramifications for global trade”.
“Every day, 50 vessels on average go through that canal, so no vessels are transiting north and south,” he said. Every day the canal is closed… container ships and tankers are not delivering food, fuel and manufactured goods to Europe and goods are not being exported from Europe to the Far East.”
He added: “If they are unable to free in a high tide, they are going to have to start removing cargo.”