Egyptian authorities free stuck container ship blocking traffic through Suez Canal
▶ Grounding of 400-metre ship blocked Egyptian waterway used to carry 12 per cent of world’s goods
The Egyptian authorities raced against time yesterday to get global trade flowing again after a container ship became stuck in the Suez Canal.
The 220,000-tonne ship Ever Given was hit by sandstorms and gale-force winds on Tuesday, blowing it off course and wedging it across the busy waterway.
Hundreds of vessels were left unable to pass through the canal as a result.
The Panama-flagged ship battled poor visibility and, possibly, a failure of its navigation equipment caused by a power cut, according to experts.
The Ever Given is 400 metres long and 59 metres wide, and can carry up to 20,000 containers. It was expected to take up to two days to move the ship, but the Egyptian authorities managed to partially refloat the enormous vessel in only hours and clear the waterway.
Ships began moving through the canal again yesterday, port agent GAC and witnesses said.
“There have been no reports of injuries, pollution or cargo damage and initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding,” said Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the technical manager of the Ever Given.
A shipping expert said that the grounding of the Ever Given could have been much worse had it happened further up the Suez Canal.
“There are tides on this side of the canal due to the Red Sea,” said Dean Mikkelson, a maritime security analyst.
“Otherwise, they might have needed to get additional equipment there, and I can’t see how they could do a ship-to-ship transfer of the containers, because there is too much traffic already to the south and north of the Ever Given.”
All that was avoided because a flotilla of tugs was able to free the stricken vessel.
“Tide and tugs saved the day,” Mr Mikkelson said.
He said a “worst-case scenario” would have involved extensive dredging.
About 12 per cent of the world’s trade volume passes through the man-made, 193kilometre canal, which is a major source of hard currency for Egypt and the quickest sea route between Asian markets and Europe.
The first canal linking the Mediterranean Sea in the north with the Red Sea in the south through the Nile was dug during the reign of Pharaoh Senusret III almost 3,900 years ago.
An artificial waterway connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea was planned by French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps in the 19th century. It took 10 years to complete and opened in November 1869.
Egypt nationalised the canal in 1956, prompting an invasion by shareholders Britain and France, along with Israel.
The crisis ended only after Egypt blocked the canal with 40 scuppered ships and the US, UN and Soviet Union intervened, forcing Britain, France and Israel to withdraw. The state-owned Suez Canal Authority was established in July 1956 and runs the waterway.
A massive cargo vessel that ran aground in the Suez Canal, blocking the waterway, has been partially refloated and ships are again passing through the trade route, port agent GAC and witnesses said last night.
The 220,000-tonne Ever Given container ship was hit by sandstorms and 40-knot (74kph) winds on Tuesday, blowing it off course and leaving it wedged across the canal.
Taiwan-based Evergreen Line, the time charterer of the vessel, said wind had blown the vessel off course. GAC initially reported that the vessel suffered a power failure.
Excavators tried to dig both ends of the 400-metre ship out of the canal’s banks, while a flotilla of tug boats assembled to pull it back into the navigation channel.
The largest tug sent to the site was the Baraka 1 that has four 3,990 horsepower engines and can tow 160 tonnes.
Tugs Mosaed Two and Mosaed Three soon followed, with an additional 140 tonnes of pull combined. Soon, eight boats combined efforts.
They managed to free the Ever Given despite the assembled pulling vessels having only a fraction of the force needed to tow such a goliath.
“They moved it faster than expected,” said Dean Mikkelson, a maritime security analyst.
“To get her back in the right direction, they clearly needed a lot of tugs. It looked like it would take a few days; hence shipping rates and oil went up in the short term.”
With the container ship afloat, witnesses reported that trade vessels starting to resume their journeys shortly afterwards.
“Convoys and traffic are expected to resume as soon as the vessel is towed to another position,” GAC said.
Shipping sources told Reuters that the first ship from the northern convoy of the Suez Canal had departed after the Ever Given was cleared yesterday.
The company that owns the vessel said there had been no catastrophic damage as a result of the incident.
“There have been no reports of injuries, pollution or cargo damage and initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding,” said Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which is the technical manager of the Ever Given.
Canal authorities said they would “spare no effort to guarantee the flow of shipping in the channel” as they redirected ships.
“There is no need to worry about the flow of shipping,” said Gen Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority.
He said that shipping had been able to navigate the canal despite the container running aground just north of Suez.
“I am now at the location of the vessel to follow up on efforts to refloat it. The movement of vessels will continue today in the canal’s main channel,” he said.
Gen Rabie’s assertion that the incident had not blocked traffic in the canal contradicted many reports from the scene.
Bloomberg reported that more than 100 ships seeking to use the canal were stuck at anchorages, waiting for the ship to clear.
Canal officials at first said that it could take up to two days to free the Ever Given, which is 59 metres wide and can carry up to 20,000 20-foot shipping containers.
Instagram user Julianne Cona posted a photo of the grounded ship taken from the Maersk Denver, which was stuck behind the Ever Given.
“Ship in front of us ran aground while going through the canal and is now stuck sideways,” she wrote. “Looks like we might be here for a little bit.”
The Ever Given was heading north en route to Rotterdam when it ran aground at about 7.40am on Tuesday.
A ship tracking service said that oil cargoes from Russia, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the US were backed up in the canal
According to Tanker Trackers, a service that tracks oil and goods shipping, oil cargoes from Russia, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the US were backed up in the canal.
Nearly 19,000 ships, or an average of 51.5 ships a day, with a net tonnage of 1.17 billion, passed through the canal during 2020, according to the Suez Canal Authority.
About 12 per cent of the world trade volume passes through the man-made canal, which is a major source of hard currency for Egypt.