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Did the bulbous bow stick into the sand?
Yoshihiko yamada
world
A container ship struck by powerful dust
The green hull of a powerful container ship ran aground, blocking the channel. Looking at the images from the sky, you can see that the boats lined up in a row in a narrow canal have gotten lost and are stuck. It is just a string of beads.
Images of this item (6)
The beached container ship is “Evergreen” operated by the Taiwanese company Evergreen Marine (Panamanian flag, 224,000 tons, total length 400 meters, width 59 meters). The powerful dust found around the Sinai Peninsula hit “Evergiven” and was hit by a gust of wind and rushed to the edge of the canal and was stranded.
It appears that he was unable to control the hull because the rudder was difficult to control because the ship was traveling at low speed as it passed through the channel. The management system for the Suez Canal is strict and there have been no large-scale accidents in recent years. Fortunately, it won’t be long before traffic resumes, as the cargo containers have not collapsed and no fuel leaks have been reported.
Global transportation hub
The Suez Canal has a total length of about 190 km. An artificial route is created between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. It is a global transportation hub connecting Asia and Europe, and the livelihood of European countries. Approximately 18,000 vessels pass through annually, including oil and liquefied natural gas from Middle Eastern countries, food and daily necessities from Asian countries, and cargo ships loaded with cars and precision machinery from Japan.
The distance between the Persian Gulf and London is about 12,000 km through the Suez Canal. If the Suez Canal cannot be passed, it will be about 21,000 km because it will pass through the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of the African continent, which will almost double the time and cost. For the European countries, which are in a state of serious economic deterioration due to the new crown, they are expected to recover as soon as possible.
The impact on Japan will be the transport of Japanese car exports to Europe, but the delay of several days will not result in a large loss and will have little direct impact on the Japanese economy. However, in a globalized society, the indirect impact will be immeasurable.
Will the demand for toll increases increase?
The canal is managed by the Suez Canal Authority, which is under the direct control of the Egyptian government, and toll revenue is also a major source of revenue for the Egyptian government. The revenue from the Suez Canal toll in 2018 was around $ 5.7 billion, representing about 2.5% of Egypt’s total GDP.
Shipping companies in each country fear that they will be required to raise tolls as a result of this accident. Japanese shipping companies pass about 1,100 ships annually through this strait, for a total of about 40,000 million yen. In recent years, the Egyptian government has hoped to review tolls as ship sizes have increased and the number of passing ships has peaked. This time, the accident caused by a large freighter shows the difficulty of managing the canal and is likely to generate a demand for an amount commensurate with it.
Amount of damage per accident
This “Evergiven” is actually owned by the Japanese shipping company “Shoei Kisen” (Ehime, Imabari City), but it was supposed to be chartered to a shipping company for a long time from the beginning. Evergreen Marine’s English name is “Evergreen Marine”, and the ship’s name is derived from the English company name. The damage caused by this accident is estimated at several tens of billions of dollars, and although the owner of the ship is responsible for the accident, it is common for the operating company to solve it by charter contract.
As mentioned above, the direct impact on Japan is small, but since most of the crude oil used in Europe passes through the Panama Canal, there is concern that crude prices will rise in Europe if the impact is prolonged. Immediate dissemination is necessary before the European economy is negatively affected.
[Escrito por: Ocean Economist Yoshihiko Yamada]