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Since Tuesday morning, Egypt’s Suez Canal has been blocked after a huge container ship ran aground, blocking the passage of hundreds of ships, including several tankers, both from the north and south. The Suez Canal is one of the busiest trade routes in the world and its blockage is already having an impact on financial markets, especially oil prices. The main problem at the moment is that it is not known for sure when the path will clear and, according to some, it could take several days, if not weeks.
The ship that ran aground is the Ever Given, from the Evergreen Marine Corp company, which is 400 meters long, 59 wide and has a tonnage of more than 200 thousand tons, which left China and headed for Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. It ran aground on Tuesday morning around 7.40 local time (6.40 in Italy) due to a sudden gust of wind that made it cross, occupying the entire width of the channel. There were no injuries in the accident and no containers or fuel were lost.
Immediately, several tugs arrived at the scene and tried to drag the boat to straighten it, without success, and excavators still trying to free the bow from the sand. Three days have passed and the ship has moved very little. Exactly how long it will take to clear the way is not yet known, but according to several shipping logistics experts, it could take days, if not weeks.
Among the companies that deal with the towing of the ship is SMIT Salvage, a company owned by the Dutch Royal Boskalis Westminster, which among other things had participated in the towing of the Costa Concordia, the Italian cruise ship sunk at sea. From the Island of Giglio. on January 13, 2012.
Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, said that according to him “unlocking the ship is not possible at the moment” and compared the Ever Given to “a huge beached whale.” The main problem, according to Berdowski, is the weight, which prevents the tugs from floating it back.
For this reason, in addition to the dredging operations of the excavators, the weight of the ship will probably have to be lightened. They will first be removed ballast water, which serves to maintain the stability of the hull, and fuel. But if this is not enough, part of the 20,000 containers transported by the ship will have to be removed: this is the worst scenario because, according to logistics experts, it could take several weeks, depending on the number of vehicles there are. it will be used for the operation (in particular helicopters).
On Wednesday, a seasoned commander of ships transiting the Suez Canal said anonymously CNN that the machinery to put the boat back to float correctly is there, but the success of the operation will depend on how it is used: “If the operations are not carried out correctly it can take a week, while if they are carried out correctly it will take two days. But if they were done correctly [fin dall’inizio], the situation would have been resolved yesterday.
We have received many requests asking us to compare today’s traffic on the #SuezCanal with a normal day on the canal.
So here you go, using our replay function, one day last week versus the last 24 hours. pic.twitter.com/pnByGshl3u– MarineTraffic (@MarineTraffic) March 24, 2021
The Suez Canal, built in 1869, remains one of the main links between Europe and Asia today, connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, allowing for sea routes that would otherwise take many more days. in circumnavigating Africa. It is 190 km long and 205 meters wide, with a maximum depth of 24 meters. It allows the passage of ships only in one direction at a time (from north to south or vice versa) except in one part: a 35 km long lane inaugurated in 2015, which allows the transit of ships in both directions at the same time.
Every day 30 per cent of all container ships in the world pass through it and in general they guarantee almost 7 per cent of the world’s merchant traffic. According to the Authority that manages the Suez Canal, almost 19,000 ships passed through it in 2020, at an average of 51.5 ships per day.
Since the Ever Given stopped, a large traffic jam has formed of ships that should have crossed the Channel, and that are now stopped: there are about 150 and they are waiting for the passage to clear. Some of these, in the southern part of Ever Given, were returned to the port of Suez. The economic consequences of the Canal blockade affect mainly the goods that are imported and exported every day between Europe and Asia on these ships, but also the price of oil.
In fact, among the ships detained in the Canal there are some that transport oil from the Middle East to Western countries. “Even the slightest delay in traffic can cause congestion and delay the delivery of goods and raw materials on both fronts,” according to analysts at S&P Global Platts, an energy and commodities information company.
The first consequence of the blockade of the canal was the increase in the price of crude oil. On Wednesday, March 24, the Brent, the oil price index sold in Europe, gained 5.86 percent to $ 63.92 a barrel, while the WTI, the oil price index in the United States, it increased by 5.84 percent to $ 60.72 a barrel. However, this increase did not last long and on Thursday crude prices fell again as they had been doing for several days due to the restrictive measures imposed in many countries by the coronavirus pandemic.
[CHART] Oil prices have rebounded from yesterday’s 6% drop, rising a similar amount, triggered by short-term supply concerns after a ship grounding that resulted in the subsequent blockade of the Suez Canal. #ausbiz #CommSec Bloomberg pic.twitter.com/0qoipyRtEX
– CommSec (@CommSec) March 24, 2021
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