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In Egypt, work on Ever Ever was suspended until Thursday morning, shipping agent Inchcape said, citing the Suez Canal administration. The dredgers are still trying to free the ship, so it is not yet possible to stretch it, the company that maintained the ship said.
It’s hard to even realize how big this ship is. At about a quarter mile (400 meters) long and weighing 200,000 metric tons, Ever Given is so large that the size alone makes it difficult to excavate.
The huge yellow bulldozer, which is about twice the height of its driver, looks like a children’s toy abandoned by the bow of an inflated ship.
The situation is so desperate that an elite rescue squad is expected to arrive Thursday to work to dislodge Ever Given from the canal embankment, where it is blocking the way for other ocean carriers carrying a wide variety of cargo, from oil to consumer goods.
A giant ship longer than the Eiffel Tower is still trapped in the Suez Canal despite efforts to free it with tugboats and bulldozers.
Dozens of vessels remain stagnant in the canal, one of the most important trade routes in the world https://t.co/Jt9tq6H1lT pic.twitter.com/EG0wyKKYoR
– Quick take from Bloomberg (@Quicktake) March 24, 2021
However, the most likely release of the ship can only occur on Sunday or Monday, when the flooding reaches its peak, says Nick Sloane, a professional rescuer responsible for pushing the Costa Concordia cruise ship off the Italian coast in 2012.
Sloane works for Resolve Marine Group, a senior rescue operator based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
About 12 percent. World trade takes place in the Suez Canal – it is so strategically significant that the world’s superpowers have been fighting over this waterway since construction completion in 1869. At this point all traffic stops, Ever Given is stuck in the shallows in the southern part of the canal.
The collapse represents another failure for global supply chains, which are already overwhelmed by the pandemic-related e-commerce boom.
“The Suez Canal was blocked at a particularly inopportune time,” said Greg Knowler, European CEO of JOC Group, part of IHS Markit Ltd. “Even a two-day delay would further disrupt the supply chain and slow the delivery of goods. to companies in the UK and Europe. “
The blockade is estimated to cost about $ 400 million. dollars an hour, citing data from Lloyd’s List that shows westbound freight traffic is worth about $ 5.1 billion. dollars a day, and eastbound traffic is about $ 4.5 billion. Dollars. According to shipping data compiled by Bloomberg, 185 ships were waiting their turn to cross the canal on Wednesday, and according to Lloyd’s
iavimus – 165.
According to the company’s supply chain monitoring project, 44 approximately 34 Maersk vessels and other shipping lines are stranded in or en route to the canal.
According to Arthur Richier, Vortexa’s senior cargo analyst, initial reports suggest the outage could affect 10 tanker trucks carrying a total of 13 million. barrels of oil.
The incident began Tuesday when strong winds blew through the region, kicking up sand along the shores of a 120-mile (193 km) long canal that connects the Mediterranean Sea in the north with the Red Sea in the south. . The waterway is narrow, in places less than 205 meters (675 feet) wide, and it can be difficult to navigate in poor visibility.
However, Ever Given kept his course from China to Rotterdam. When gusts, up to 46 miles per hour, kicked dust into the air, the crew lost control of the ship and crashed into the sand embankment on its side, blocking almost the entire channel.
According to Inchcape, it is still in the same position it was in the shallows.
At the time of the accident, around 5.40 in the morning, two canal pilots were on board.
The last known speed of the ship is approximately 5.30 hours. it was 13.5 knots.
The main cause of the accident is the incomprehensible dimensions of the ship.
Over the past decade, with the expansion of world trade, the size of container ships has nearly doubled, making it much more difficult for those ships to get trapped.
Although major waterways, including the Suez Canal, have widened and deepened over the years to allow the passage of large ships, moving these giants after getting stuck requires an enormous amount of effort.
The problem of moving the ship this time was blocked by the legendary Dutch company SMIT Salvage, whose employees descend from ship to ship and rescue them during heavy storms.
Ever Given is so heavy that lifeguards may need to make it easier by removing items like ballast water that help ships maintain stability at sea. It may also be necessary to unload the fuel from the ship.
The Suez Canal administration did not comment on the rescue efforts and did not specify when traffic could resume.
The canal is one of the busiest waterways in the world, used by oil tankers to transport oil from the Middle East to Europe and North America, and vice versa.
The accident highlights the significant risks facing the shipping industry as more and more ships sail towards potential congestion points, including Suez, the Panama Canal, the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia. Similar incidents may become more common as boats increase and waterways become increasingly difficult to navigate.
“Every hour, more and more ships, including container ships, tankers, RORO vessels and bulk carriers, are piling up in the northern Mediterranean and the Red Sea in the south,” said Jett McCandless, executive director of project44. “This is yet another blow to global trade after years of congested and disrupted supply chains.”
Oil companies are beginning to prepare for the worst. On Wednesday, oil corridors began to show interest in tankers with options to bypass the canal, according to the corridor, and there were several attempts to reserve a spot in the pipelines that would allow bypassing the waterways altogether. So far, these are “all bad” decisions.
Container ships are likely to still have to wait for the accident, as the main alternative is an unattractive option to avoid the southern Horn of Africa.
The disruption comes at a time when oil prices are already fluctuating. Crude oil topped $ 70 a barrel earlier this month due to a reduction in production in Saudi Arabia, but fell to nearly $ 60 this week due to the failure of the European coronavirus vaccine program. Brent oil rose more than 5 percent on Wednesday.
The Ever Given crew is safe and assisted, and according to Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the ship’s maintenance company, there were no reports of injuries or contamination. According to company representative Mark Wong, the ship also carries cargo to logistics company Orient Overseas Container Line Ltd.
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