SUEZ CRISIS 2021
Giant ship is wedged across canal and threatens huge cargo hold-up
THINK you’ve had a bad day at work? Spare a thought for the container ship captain who is blocking 10 per cent of the world’s shipping trade.
The Ever Given – which at 1,312ft is longer than four football pitches – is wedged across the Suez Canal.
The ship ran aground on Tuesday as it sailed from the Red Sea towards the Mediterranean. Experts warned it could take days to free the vessel, wreaking havoc on one of the world’s busiest shipping routes and threatening ‘catastrophic delays’ to supply chains, including the delivery of Covid vaccines.
It is thought the 224,000-tonne vessel was blown off course en route through Egypt by strong winds and a dust storm. The bow of the Panama-flagged, Taiwan-owned ship is touching the canal’s eastern wall, while its stern is lodged against the western bank.
Evergreen Marine, the company which operates the vessel, said the Ever Given ‘was suspected of being hit by a sudden strong wind, causing the hull to deviate from the waterway and accidentally hit the bottom and run aground’.
The vessel’s management company, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, said all crew members were safe and there were no reports of injuries or pollution.
Egypt said it had reopened the canal’s older channel to divert some traffic amid fears the main route could be blocked for days. An alternative route around the African cape takes a week longer to navigate. Eight tugboats were attached to the ship last night, while excavators on the bank were removing sand to help free it.
Some 30 vessels were waiting at Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, midway along the canal, while 40 idled in the Mediterranean near Port Said and another 30 at Suez in the Red Sea. They included seven vessels carrying 5 million barrels of crude oil.
Dr Sal Mercogliano, a former merchant mariner and associate professor of history at North Carolina’s Campbell University, said the situation was ‘precarious’. He told the BBC: ‘Vessels are going to start piling up. You’re going to have delays with getting goods to market, we’re talking vaccines, we’re talking manufacturing goods, food, everything, fuel too, it’s potentially catastrophic.’
Built in 2018, the Ever Given can carry 20,000 containers and was bound for Rotterdam. In 2019, the cargo ship ran into a small ferry in Germany. Authorities also blamed strong winds for the collision.