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Photos posted on the internet show that a 400-meter-long, 59-meter-wide ship, the Taiwanese-owned MV Ever Given, is stuck on the side of the canal, preventing all ships behind from passing. Rescuers are trying to pull the ship out of the shallow water.
“The container ship accidentally ran aground on suspicion of gusts of wind,” Evergreen Marine Corp told AFP.
“The company urges the shipowner to reveal the cause of the incident and discusses with the relevant authorities, including canal management services, how to help the ship as soon as possible,” the operator said.
Bloomberg reports that the incident has caused more than 100 ships in the Suez Canal.
“It was shallow here,” said Alok Royus, fleet manager at BSM Hong Kong, the shipowner.
Meanwhile, Instagram user Julianne Cona shared a photo of a stranded ship from another Maersk Denver trapped behind it.
“Sailing in the canal, the ship in front of us ran aground and is now stuck on its side. Looks like we can stay here for a while, “he wrote.
According to the Vessel Finder shipping portal, the ship set sail for Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and the reason for its stop is unclear.
“Currently, support boats are trying to pull a boat stuck in the water,” Leth Agencies, a company that provides services to customers using the channel, wrote on Twitter.
Salas Mercogliano, a North Carolina maritime historian in the United States, told the BBC that incidents like this were extremely rare and could have a “major impact on world trade.”
“This is the largest ship ever stuck in the Suez Canal,” he said, adding that it had probably sunk ashore, lost power and could no longer move.
“If this huge container ship cannot move during the flood, it will have to take off the cargo urgently,” explains Mercogliano.
The operation to dismantle Ever Given may require the removal of large accumulations of sand around the ship, a process that will take several days, reports Cairo24, citing official Suez Canal officials.
In 2017, the canal was blocked by a Japanese container ship, a situation that arose due to technical problems. Then Egyptian officials dispatched special towing teams and a few hours later the canal was released.
The Suez Canal, excavated more than 150 years ago, is one of the most important trade routes in the world, with 10% going through it. of all cargo transported by sea.
According to the Suez Canal Service, almost 19,000 people passed through the canal last year. ships carrying more than one billion tons of cargo.
In recent years, the canal has been a real gold nugget for the Egyptian economy. Channel use country in 2020 received 5.61 billion. dollars in income.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi 2015 laid out plans to develop the canal until 2023. Reduce waiting times and double the number of ships sailing daily.
In February, AF al-Sisi ordered his government to implement a “flexible channel marketing policy” that would allow it to cope with the economic recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Egyptian authorities have yet to comment on the incident in the Suez Canal.
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