The traffic jam in the Suez Canal is a titanic challenge

(CNN) – Up to 20,000 cubic meters (706,000 cubic feet) of sand will need to be removed in the Suez Canal to free the giant container ship that has been stuck there since Tuesday, according to canal authorities.

The Ever Given, a container ship almost as long as the height of the Empire State Building in New York, ran aground in the Egyptian Channel after being trapped by 40-knot winds and a sandstorm that caused poor visibility and poor navigation.

It has blocked one of the busiest waterways in the world, prompting frantic salvage efforts, including the use of two dredgers, nine tugboats and four excavators on the canal bank.

Hard work

The dredgers are working hard to remove sand and mud from the bow of the ship, and will need to move between 15,000 and 20,000 cubic meters (530,000 to 706,000 cubic feet) of sand to reach a depth of 12 to 16 meters (39 to 52 feet), which could allow the ship to float, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said on Thursday. That’s roughly eight times the size of a lap pool.

“In addition to the dredgers that are already on site, a specialized suction dredger is now with the vessel and will start work soon. This dredger can move 2,000 cubic meters of material every hour, ”Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, technical manager of the Ever Given ship, said in a statement.

The SCA added that it had discussed the option of moving the vessel, which is 400 meters (1,312 feet) long and 59 meters (193 feet) wide, by dredging the area around it.

It could take days to free the Suez Canal

The channel’s chief pilot at SCA told CNN on Wednesday that getting the huge ship back into the water is “technically very complicated” and could take days.

A team of salvage experts from the Dutch Smit Salvage and Japan’s Nippon Salvage, who have worked on several high-profile operations in the past, have been appointed to help the Suez Canal Authority float the ship, said the Evergreen Marine charter company in a statement.

But every day that passes comes at a high cost for companies and countries whose trade has been halted by stagnation. About 12% of the world’s trade volume passes through the Suez Canal and typically handles about $ 10 billion a day in cargo.

More than 18,800 ships with a net tonnage of 1.17 billion tons passed through the canal during 2020. That’s an average of 51.5 ships per day.

Importance of the channel

At least 160 ships carrying fuel and vital cargo are now waiting to pass through the blocked waterway, according to a senior canal pilot at the SCA. Some ships are deciding to divert their journey around Cape Horn to avoid the jam in the Suez Canal, but they face an additional 3,800 miles and up to 12 days of additional sailing time, according to the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).

“Not only will the goods on board the Ever Given suffer serious delays on their voyage, but hundreds of other ships will also be affected. The damage done to the global supply chain will be significant, ”said ICS Secretary General Guy Platten.

Experts worry that if the ship is not released soon, the jam could affect the oil market, shipping and container rates, causing the cost of everyday goods to rise.

“Most of the trade between Asia and Europe still relies on the Suez Canal, and since vital goods, including vital medical equipment and protective equipment, move through these ships, we ask the Egyptian authorities to do everything possible. They can to reopen the canal as soon as possible, ”Platten said.

It’s not the first time

This is not the first time that the canal, which opened in 1869, has faced closure. It had to close between 1956 and 1957 due to the Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab-Israeli War. It closed again in 1967 when Israel occupied the Sinai Peninsula, and it did not reopen until 1975.

But this closure may have a much larger and more disturbing impact than the last two because the level of trade between Europe and Asia has grown substantially in subsequent decades.

“The size of the shipments has become so large that it is very difficult for the Egyptian authorities, basically, to keep up with the growth,” CNN senior international correspondent Bill Wedeman said on Thursday. “The size of the Suez Canal in the last 50 years, its width, has basically doubled and it is clearly still not big enough.”

The Ever Given ship is owned by the Japanese shipping company Shoei Kisen KK. In a press release, Shoei Kisen apologized to other ships who were planning to sail and are now stuck. The company told CNN that they assume damages will be claimed for the incident, but their main focus now is to refloat the ship.

CNN’s Hamdi Alkhshali and Mostafa Salem contributed to this report.