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The container ship Ever Given is seen in the Suez Canal in this satellite image taken by Satellogic’s NewSat-16 on March 25, 2021. Satellogic / Handout via REUTERS
SUEZ, Egypt – Efforts to dislodge a giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal have allowed its stern and rudder to shift, but it is unclear when the ship will be refloated, the canal authority chief said on Saturday.
The 400-meter (430-yard) long Ever Given wedged diagonally across a southern section of the canal amid high winds early Tuesday morning, blocking one of the world’s busiest waterways.
A combination of dredging material around the ship and pulling and pushing the ship with tugs made less progress in evicting the ship on Saturday, two SCA sources said. A source said there had been some movement in the bow of the ship.
The president of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Osama Rabie, told local television that water had started to run under the boat. “We hope that at any moment the ship can slide and move from where it is,” he said at a press conference earlier.
Approximately 15% of the world’s maritime traffic transits the canal and hundreds of vessels are waiting to pass once the blockade is lifted.
Rabie said he hoped it would not be necessary to remove some of the 18,300 containers on board to lighten the ship’s cargo, but strong tides and winds were complicating efforts to free it.
“The stern of the ship started (on Friday) moving towards Suez, and that was a positive sign until 11pm (2100 GMT) at night, but the tide dropped significantly and we stopped,” Rabie told reporters in Suez. .
The dredgers removed about 20,000 tonnes of sand from around her bow on Friday. A Dutch company working to free the ship said it could be released early next week if heavier tugs, dredging and a high tide manage to dislodge it.
Towing attempts restarted on Saturday afternoon and more efforts were planned for Sunday, SCA sources said, although they added that more sand may need to be removed around the ship to free it.
A shipping agent in Port Said said the SCA had notified agencies to prepare for the possible entry of new ships into the canal, while a shipping source said the SCA had outlined a plan for the rapid transit of 133 vessels once for the Ever Given to be released.
Heavy tugboats
The director of Boskalis, the parent company of Dutch firm Smit Salvage that has been hired to help the SCA, said heavy tugs with a combined capacity of 400 tons would arrive sometime this weekend.
“Our goal is to do it after the weekend, but everything will have to work for exactly that,” Boskalis CEO Peter Berdowski told Dutch TV show Nieuwsuur late on Friday.
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Saturday thanked foreign partners for offers to help refloat the ship.
Shipping rates for petroleum product tankers nearly doubled after the ship was stranded, and the lockdown has disrupted global supply chains, threatening costly delays for companies already grappling with restrictions. of COVID-19.
If the lockdown is prolonged, carriers may decide to divert their shipments around the Cape of Good Hope, adding about two weeks to travel and additional fuel costs. Rabie said the waiting boats could change their route, but none had done so yet.
He said 321 vessels were waiting to enter or continue their transit through the canal. These include dozens of container ships, bulk carriers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels, according to a shipping source.
So far, fourteen tugs have been involved in efforts to refloat the Ever Given, although Boskalis and Smit Salvage have warned that using too much force to pull the boat could damage it.
Berdowski said an overland crane could lighten the Ever Given load by removing the containers, although experts have warned that such a process could be complex and time-consuming.
“If we can’t get it off next week, we will have to remove about 600 containers from the bow to reduce weight,” he said. “That will set us back at least days, because where to put all those containers will be a puzzle.”
Rabie said empty container ships with cranes could unload cargo.
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