Ever Given freed, but backlogs will be felt for months
The enormous container ship blocking the Suez Canal was finally freed early yesterday, after spending nearly a week blocking billions of dollars of shipping through the vital trade route.
Fog horns sounded in celebration as tugboats pulled the 400m-long Ever Given free from the canal’s sandy bank.
The ship, which is nearly as long as the Empire State building is tall, became lodged in the bank last Wednesday amid high winds and poor visibility, despite having two pilots from the Suez Canal Authority on board. It held up an estimated $9 billion ($17b) in global trade every day it was stuck.
After finally being refloated, the 220,000 tonne vessel headed to the Great Bitter Lake section of the canal, for inspectors to examine the ship and its 20,000 containers of cargo.
The canal’s blockage highlighted the vulnerability to disruption of global supply chains that were already feeling the strain of a global pandemic.
An estimated 12 per cent of global shipping passes through the canal, and since Wednesday more than 400 vessels have queued up waiting to transit, carrying food, fuel, livestock and consumer goods. Even after the backlog is cleared, knockon disruptions to global trade will be felt for months, according to shipping group Maersk.
“For every day the canal remains blocked, the ripple effects on global capacity and equipment continues to increase and the blockage triggers a series of further disruptions and backlogs in global shipping that could take months to unravel,” the company said.
The knock-on effect will worsen as the impact on global trade lingers, a Chinese logistics executive warned. Even in the best-case scenario, it will take a month or more to work through the congestion, said Max Wei, general manager of international business at Speedaf Logistics Ltd. Several dozen ships have already been diverted around Africa, adding up to 10 days to their journeys.