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The maritime traffic jam at both ends of the Suez Canal eased further on Friday (local time), four days after the eviction of a huge container ship that had blocked the waterway, a canal service company said.
On Monday, salvage crews released the skyscraper-sized Ever Given, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world’s most important waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime trade.
At the time, canal officials said more than 420 ships had been waiting for the Japanese-owned Panama-flagged ship to be released so they could cross.
Mohamed Elshahed / AP
Ever Given, a Panama-flagged freighter, is seen in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake on March 30.
Leth’s agencies said a total of 357 vessels have crossed the Channel since the ship was refloated by a flotilla of tugs, aided by the tides.
READ MORE:
* Egypt expects $ 1.4 billion in damage from a ship trapped in the Suez Canal.
* Experts examine the bottom of a skyscraper-sized ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal
* Suez Canal pilots come under scrutiny after cargo ship is grounded
* Giant container ship that blocked the Suez Canal released
The number of vessels expected to transit fell to 206 on Friday, the company said, from more than 300 earlier in the week.
The Ever Given had crashed into a bank on a single-lane stretch of the canal about 6 km north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.
AP
The Ever Given got stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal and blocked all traffic on the vital waterway last month.
That forced some ships to take the long alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope in the southern tip of Africa, a 5,000km detour that costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs.
Others waited instead for the lockdown to end.
The unprecedented shutdown, which led to fears of lengthy delays, shortages of goods and rising costs for consumers, added to pressure on the shipping industry, which was already under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.
