WE ARE SAILING – AT LAST!
Canal is moving again as ship is freed but trade disruption could last for months
KLAXONS blared out yesterday as tugboats celebrated finally freeing the cargo ship blocking the Suez Canal.
The backlog of 450 vessels finally started to move as the Ever Given was dislodged after almost a weeklong salvage operation.
It first began to budge yesterday morning and salvage teams were helped by the second high tide in the space of a few hours. A small fleet of tugboats then wrenched the bow of the 1,312ft ship from the bank of the vital trade artery.
Rescue boats celebrated and Peter Berdowski of Boskalis, the Dutch firm hired to free the vessel, said: ‘We pulled it off!’ Salvage teams were hopeful and also cheered earlier in the day when the stern was hauled back into open water.
The 220,000-ton vessel was being towed towards the Great Bitter Lake in the middle of the canal where she will undergo safety checks.
If cleared she could be back on her way to Rotterdam but if repairs are needed she may have to dock at another port.
Around £6.5billion of trade has been held up every day since Ever Given became wedged on either side of the canal last Tuesday.
But yesterday does not mark the end of the problem.
A backlog of around 450 tankers and container ships stuck in the area could take up to a week to clear. Ships with urgent delivery schedules, such as those carrying livestock, are expected to be given priority.
Experts have warned that ports would suffer congestion as the ships queue up to offload their goods. And the knock-on effect on global trade will last for months, said Richard Meade, of shipping journal Lloyd’s List. He told Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘We could be looking at several months of disruption across the supply chain, regardless of how quickly they can get the ships through.’ Gary Hufbauer, of the US-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, said: ‘Shipping prices are going to go up. That will tighten up supply 700ft lines and mean shortages at the consumer level and it will also mean higher prices for oil.’
The canal links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and has tides because it has no locks and is free-flowing.
It carries more than 10 per cent of global trade and UK shoppers have already been warned to expect delays on items ranging from toys to white goods and clothing.
Traffic resumed through the route at 5pm yesterday.
At the height of the salvage operation there were 14 tugboats pushing and pulling on Ever Given, while dredgers removed hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of sandy clay from around the ship.
Failure to free the boat would have meant having to lighten her load by removing some of her 18,300 containers which could have taken weeks.
Shoei Kisen, the Japanese company that owns the ship, said while damage was sustained to the bow when she got stuck, ‘no new damage has been reported’.
‘Shortages and higher prices’