SUEZ SHIP SPRUNG
Tide finally turns & floats canal-clogging beast that snarled global trade
The massive cargo ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal last week and threatened to spark a global economic crisis by blocking an essential maritime trade route was finally freed Monday.
The drawn-out ordeal came to an end shortly after the Ever Given’s huge bow, which had been lodged in the canal’s eastern bank since Tuesday, was pulled from the shoreline by several tugboats and towed to Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake to be inspected, according to Evergreen Marine Corp., a Taiwan-based company that operates the ship.
In a statement Monday, the firm tasked with freeing the Ever Given celebrated the ship’s long-awaited removal.
“We pulled it off!” Boskalis CEO Peter Berdowski said. “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.”
The container ship, about a quarter-mile long, was heading from China to the Netherlands when it got caught in high winds and a sandstorm as it made its way through the narrow waterway of the Suez Canal in Egypt, which connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.
It crashed into the bank and completely clogged the canal, holding up more than 400 ships laden with everything from food to fuel to livestock, and delaying up to $9 billion a day in global trade.
Dozens of ships decided to alter their course and take a longer and much costlier route around the southern tip of Africa to reach destinations in Europe and the Americas. “Today, Egyptians have succeeded in ending the crisis of the delinquent ship on the Suez Canal despite the massive technical complexity surrounding this process on every side,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said in a Facebook statement Monday. “Returning things to normal course, in Egyptian hands, reassures the whole world of the path of its goods and needs passed by this axial artery.
Prior to the ship’s removal, the Suez Canal Authority had announced Monday that the Ever Given was “successfully refloated,” creating optimism that the canal would soon be cleared.
“This was the result of successful push and tow maneuvers which led to the restoration of 80% of the vessel’s direction,”
authorities said at the time.
At that point, the ship’s stern was more than 30 feet from the western shoreline, compared with just 13 feet the night before, according to the statement.
The full moon and high tides overnight into Monday appeared to help salvage crews working to set the Ever Given free following days of dredging and excavation.
.More than 1.06 million cubic feet of sand needed to be dredged in order for the tugboats to successfully pull the Ever Given free, the Boskalis company said.
“The time pressure to complete this operation was evident and unprecedented and the result is a true display of our unique capabilities as a dredging and marine services provider,” Berdowski said.
An investigation will determine the next steps for the Ever Given, which could continue its original trip to the Netherlands if it’s deemed seaworthy.
More than 100 ships began to move through the canal Monday, but analysts said it might take more than a week to completely clear the two-way traffic jam.