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On Friday, Egypt continues its efforts to remove a massive container ship that has disrupted shipping in the Suez Canal, the vital trade corridor between Europe and Asia, since Wednesday, in an accident that obstructed global shipping.
On Thursday night, Lieutenant General Mohab Mamish, an advisor to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for the Suez Canal projects, said in a statement to Agence France-Presse that navigation traffic on the canal will resume. ” within 48 to 72 hours. maximum “.
Lieutenant General Memish, who oversaw the latest expansion of this congested marine artery, added: “I have experience in many similar rescue operations and, as a former head of the Suez Canal Authority, I know every inch of the canal.”
Delinquent ship
The Suez Canal Authority said on Thursday that shipping traffic was “temporarily suspended” until the giant 400-meter ship, which completely blocked the canal after it ran aground and was stuck in the sand, floated again.
The statement by the Egyptian presidential adviser came after the Dutch company Smit Salvage, which was commissioned by Evergreen Marine Corp. to operate the auxiliary boat to float, said the process could take “days or even weeks.”
Evergreen has appointed teams of experts from Smit Salvage, but also from the Japanese company Nippon Salvage, to devise a “more effective plan” to get the ship out.
Map showing ship congestion due to accident
“It’s a very heavy whale on the beach, so to speak,” said Peter Berdowski, chief executive of Royal Boscalis, the parent company of the Dutch company, on Wednesday night.
He considered that removing the container tanker “MV Evergiven”, which prevents the passage of ships through the Suez Canal, will take “days, even weeks.”
An interactive map from the Vesselvinder site, which specializes in boat traffic, shows that there are dozens of boats waiting on both sides of the canal and in the waiting area in between.
Faced with a foggy atmosphere, the Hapag-Lloyd Maritime Logistics Company, which affected several of its ships, told customers Thursday that it was considering “changing the course of the ships to the Cape of Good Hope,” a journey of thousands kilometers. that envelops the African continent.
In turn, a spokeswoman for the company “Maersk”, the world’s largest shipowner, said that the company is studying “all possible alternatives”, noting that “nine container ships belonging to Maersk and two partner ships” anchored while waiting for the reopening of the lane.
The accident, which occurred late Tuesday, Wednesday, slowed deliveries of oil and other commercial goods.
The news contributed to the rise in oil prices on Wednesday.
From the position of the rogue ship
Locomotives dispatched by the Suez Canal Authority have been trying to displace the massive container ship since Wednesday morning.
For its part, the company “Shwe Kisen Kaisha” announced that it owns the huge rogue tanker of the Suez Canal, and faces “extreme difficulty” in its floatation.
The accident is expected to slow down shipping for a few days, but the economic consequences will remain limited in principle if the situation is not prolonged, experts say.
Precise maneuvers
Bjornar Tonhaugen from Raystad’s office said the consequences on prices will depend on the period of interruption, explaining to Agence France-Presse that “the effects are likely to be weak and temporary.”
He added: “But if the suspension continues for days, this may have greater effects on prices and for a longer period.”
“We’ve never seen anything like this before, but it will likely take several days or weeks for congestion to subside as it will extend its impact on other shipments and schedules,” said Ranjith Raja, head of oil research at the US Financial Data Company, Refinitiv. Temporary and global markets “.
However, current economic conditions, in the context of the health crisis and the restrictions preventing recovery, will not contribute to the current price rise.
The “MV Evergiven” ship, 400 meters long and 59 meters wide, with a total tonnage of 224,000 tonnes, drifted during a flight from China bound for Rotterdam on the south side of the canal, near Suez.
The enormous size of the ship complicates its floatation, said Jean-Marie Music, a professor at the Paul Valerie University in Montpellier (south-eastern France) who specializes in shipping.
He added: “These boats have a great draft, especially since they were fully loaded. Below the keel, the water level is minimal,” and stressed that the authorities should take the time necessary to “move well.”
“Care must also be taken not to damage the ship’s structure during maneuvers to float and carefully distribute stresses along its hull,” he added. He stressed that “the experience of the technical services of the Upper Canal Authority” to carry out this type of operation.
Bernard Schulte Shipmanship (BSM), a Singapore-based company that oversees the ship’s technical management, said all 25 crew members were safe. The ship’s cargo was not damaged or contaminated.
Experts suggested that there were strong winds behind the accident. The Canal Authority also attributed the accident to the lack of visibility resulting from bad weather due to the blowing of a sandstorm in the country.
The Suez Canal linking the Red Bahrain and the Mediterranean was inaugurated in 1869. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced in 2015 a project to develop the canal aimed at reducing waiting times and doubling the number of ships that They use it by 2023. To this end, in 2014 the Egyptians dug a new canal in which the container ship was suspended.
The Suez Canal ensures the passage of 10% of international maritime commercial traffic and forms a link between Europe and Asia.
