Losses mount from vessel stuck in Suez canal
ISMAILIA, Egypt (AP) — Dredgers, tugboats and even a backhoe failed to free a giant cargo ship wedged in Egypt’s Suez Canal on Thursday. More than 150 vessels are now backed up, with hundreds more headed to the vital waterway, and losses to global shipping are mounting.
The skyscraper-sized Ever Given, carrying cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday in the narrow, manmade canal dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula. Even helped by high tides, authorities have been unable to push the Panama-flagged container vessel aside, and they are looking for new ideas.
In a sign of the turmoil the blockage has caused, the ship’s Japanese owner even offered a written apology.
As efforts to free it resumed at daylight Thursday, an Egyptian canal authority official said workers hoped to avoid offloading containers from the vessel as it would take days to do so and extend the closure.
So far, dredgers have tried to clear silt around the ship. Tug boats nudged the vessel alongside it, trying to gain momentum. However, satellite photos showed the vessel still stuck in the same location.
Lt. Gen. Osama Rabei, the head of the canal authority, said navigation would remain halted until the Ever Given is refloated. A team from Boskalis, a Dutch firm specialized in salvaging, arrived at the canal Thursday, although one of its top officials warned removing the vessel could take “days to weeks.”
The Suez Canal Authority said one idea the team discussed was scraping the bottom of the canal around the ship.
The company that manages the Ever Given, said they were focusing on dredging to remove sand and mud from around the port side of the vessel’s bow. It said a specialized suction dredger would join other dredgers on the site.