Suez unplugged
Trade moving through canal as jumbo ship freed; Hub may see delays
The flow of supplies worldwide is picking up steam now that the Suez Canal is open again, with Massport saying Boston will feel the pinch for a little longer.
The Egyptian government announced early Monday the mammoth container ship the Ever Given was pulled out of the banks of the canal and floating free. That means hundreds of other ships can get moving, too.
“The ports in Europe will be the first ones to see the delays and there will likely be some delays here,” said John Nucci, a Massport board member. “But once the goods make it to Boston, we can move quickly. We’re not congested here.”
Massport, like every port and airport worldwide, is slowly climbing out of the pandemic lockdowns. A Massport spokeswoman told the Herald the Europe-to-Boston shipping corridor has seen a 14% jump in traffic, in a rare win for the quasi-state agency. The city’s terminal will be able to cope with the latearriving goods, she added.
“We are glad to see this issue is being resolved,” said Massport’s Jennifer Mehigan.
The beaching of the skyscrapersized Ever Given in the Suez Canal hit at a very perilous time for the world economy. It had been stuck in the canal since March 23.
“We pulled it off !” said Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, the salvage firm hired to extract the Ever Given. “I am excited to announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given … thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again.”
Lt. Gen. Osama Rabei, head of the Suez Canal Authority, added that the first ships that were moving carried livestock. From the city of Suez, ships stacked with containers could be seen exiting the canal into the Red Sea.
The Wall Street Journal reported ships with livestock were allowed to go first because they were running out of feed for the animals.
At least 113 of over 420 vessels that had waited for Ever Given to be freed are expected to cross the canal by Tuesday morning, Rabei added at a news conference, according to the Associated Press.
The stuck ship is said to have cost $9 billion a day in tied up trade — with 12% of the world’s shipping freight using the canal.
The canal is a source of national pride and crucial revenue for Egypt, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi praised Monday’s events after days of silence about the blockage. “Egyptians have succeeded in ending the crisis,” he wrote on Facebook, “despite the massive technical complexity.”
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo tweeted its congratulations to Egypt.