Suez cargo ship budges – but will be stuck until next week
EFFORTS to dislodge a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal had allowed its stern and rudder to move, but it remained unclear when it could be refloated, the head of the canal authority said.
The 400m-long Ever Given became wedged across a southern section of the canal during high winds on Tuesday, disrupting global trade by blocking one of the world’s busiest waterways. About 15 per cent of shipping traffic goes through the canal, and hundreds of vessels are waiting to pass through.
Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, said he hoped it would not be necessary to remove some of the ship’s 18,300 containers to lighten its load, but that strong tides and winds were complicating efforts to free it.
He said yesterday that on Friday night “the stern began to move towards Suez, and that was a positive sign until 11pm [9pm UK time], but the tide fell significantly and we stopped”.
Dredgers had removed 20,000 tonnes of sand from around its bow by Friday. Boskalis, a Dutch company involved in the operation, said the vessel could be freed by early next week if heavier tugboats, dredging and a high tide succeed in dislodging it. Tugging attempts restarted yesterday afternoon.
“We aim to get it done after the weekend, but everything will have to work out exactly right for that,” Peter Berdowski, its chief executive, told a Dutch TV channel. “The bow is really stuck in the sandy clay, but the stern has not been pushed totally into the clay, which is positive. We can try to use that as leverage to pull it loose.”