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A huge container ship blocking Egypt’s Suez Canal for nearly a week has been released and is on the move, a salvage company said.
Aided by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugs managed to tear the bulbous bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given off the canal’s sandy shore, where it had been firmly lodged since last Tuesday.
After transporting the fully loaded 220,000-ton vessel over the canal bank, the rescue team was pulling the vessel into the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water midway between the north and south end of the canal, where the The ship will undergo a technical inspection, canal authorities said.
Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com confirmed that the ship was moving away from the coast towards the center of the artery.
People watch the Ever Given float again, unblocking the Suez Canal. Photograph: Mahmoud Khaled / Getty
Video released by the Suez Canal Authority showed Ever Given being escorted by the tugboats that helped free it, each honking their horns in jubilation after nearly a week of chaos.
“We did it!” Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, the salvage firm hired to extract Ever Given, said in a statement. “I am pleased to announce that our team of experts, working closely with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given … making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again.”
Traffic jam
The obstruction has created a massive traffic jam on the vital passage, withholding $ 9 billion each day in global trade and putting pressure on supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic.
It was unclear when traffic through the canal would return to normal. At least 367 vessels, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, have piled up at both ends of the canal, waiting to pass.
This satellite image from Planet Labs Inc. shows the MV Ever Given freighter trapped in the Suez Canal on Sunday. Photograph: Planet Labs Inc. via AP
Data firm Refinitiv estimated that it could take more than 10 days to clear the ship buildup. Meanwhile, dozens of vessels have opted for the alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope in the southern tip of Africa, a 3,100-mile detour that adds about two weeks to travel and costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel. and other costs.
The release of the vessel occurred after the dredgers sucked sand and mud from the bow of the vessel and 10 tugs pushed and dragged the vessel for five days, managing to partially refloat it at dawn.
It was unclear whether the Ever Given, a Japanese-owned Panama-flagged ship carrying goods from Asia to Europe, would continue to its original destination of Rotterdam or whether it would have to enter another port for repairs.
Ship operators did not offer a timetable for the reopening of the crucial canal, which carries more than 10 percent of world trade, including 7 percent of the world’s oil. More than 19,000 ships passed through there last year, according to canal authorities.
Millions of barrels of petroleum and liquefied natural gas flow through the artery from the Persian Gulf into Europe and North America. Products made in China, furniture, clothing, supermarket essentials, destined for Europe must also pass through the canal, or else take the detour through Africa.
The unprecedented shutdown had threatened to disrupt oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East and had raised fears of lengthy delays, shortages of goods and rising costs for consumers. The salvage operation successfully relied on tugs and dredgers alone, allowing authorities to avoid the much more complex and time-consuming task of lightening the ship by unloading its 20,000 containers. – PA
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