[ad_1]
The Ever Given freighter, which ran aground in the Suez Canal, is sailing again. Traffic can be started on the important waterway.
The container ship Ever Given, which ran aground in the Suez Canal, is once again free.
Video: Tamedia
According to official information, the giant container ship “Ever Given” that ran aground in the Suez Canal is once again free. A Reuters reporter saw the ship move. An alleged ship tracker and Egyptian television showed the freighter in the middle of the channel.
The tugboats involved in the rescue operation sounded the horns of their boats to celebrate the successful rescue, according to AFP correspondents. “We released them,” said Dutch salvage company Boskalis. Experts from the Smit Salvage subsidiary, in close cooperation with the sewer authority, got the “Ever Green” moving again around 3 pm.
In order for the ship to be reloaded with 13,800 containers afloat, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) had recently prepared a discharge. In the end, however, the ship was freed with the help of tugboats. According to Boskalis, 30,000 cubic meters of sand had to be dug up for this. 13 tugs were in use. According to the salvage company, Ever Given will now go through the Suez Canal and will then be technically overhauled.
The full trailer “is not an easy exercise,” Berdowski warned on Dutch radio.
Canal operator SCA announced Monday that traffic on the waterway, so important to global shipping, would resume. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had not yet made a public statement on the situation in the Suez Canal. On Monday he said Egypt had ended the crisis and secured the resumption of trade through the canal.
The ship’s Vesselfinder radar shows how Ever Given is navigating the Suez Canal again.
Photo: Screenshot Vesselfinder
The accident disrupted supply chains around the world. Danish shipping company Maersk said that even if the canal reopens now, there will still be weeks, if not months, significant effects on international shipping. The corona pandemic had already caused entry and dispatch bottlenecks in ports around the world. In Maersk and also in Hamburg’s rival Hapag-Lloyd, several ships were directly affected by the recent blockade, as they got stuck in the canal, had to wait in front of them or were diverted.
According to the canal authority, around 370 ships were waiting for their passage on both sides of the canal, including 25 oil tankers. Financial news service Bloomberg reported 450 ships were waiting on Monday. Several shipping companies had already started shipping their ships through the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.
According to Maersk, it could take at least six days before the traffic jam can be fully resolved. Canal operator SCA, on the other hand, assumes a maximum of three days and has promised to speed up the transport of the waiting ships through the canal after the Ever Given has been rescued. “We won’t waste a second,” SCA President Osama Rabie promised.
In the Red Sea, in the Channel and on the other side of the Mediterranean, hundreds of ships wait to continue their journey, including animal transporters. (March 28, 2021)
Photo: Mahmoud Khaled (AFP)
The Kiel Institute for the World Economy also expects spillover effects for world trade after Ever Given has been rescued. The rating agency Fitch assumes that reinsurers will face losses of hundreds of millions of euros from the lockdown. This will have an impact on balance sheets and will also drive up the reinsurance prices for the shipment.
On the other hand, the railroad reports positive effects: According to a company spokesperson, the blockade of the Suez Canal has notably increased the demand for rail transport to and from Asia. At ten days, the trains to China were only half as long as the ship. Demand had already increased with the onset of the pandemic.
With several dredgers on land and ten tugs in the water, the canal authority attempted to free the freighter. (March 28, 2021)
Photo: Suez Canal authorized by the canal through Keystone
The first effects of the day-long canal blockade can already be felt: Syria said on Saturday that it had begun rationing fuel supplies in response to a lack of oil supplies.
Meanwhile, animal rights activists were concerned about the fate of 130,000 sheep aboard eleven Romanian freighters. Bucharest veterinary authorities announced on Saturday evening that contacts had been made with live animal transport companies. This would have ensured “that there is enough food and water on board for the next few days.”
The 400-meter-long Ever Given completely blocked the Suez Canal for days.
Photo: AFP / Maxar
Over the weekend, hopes were raised for the first time that the “Ever Given” could come out on top again. Thanks to the 27,000 cubic meters of sand already removed from under the bow and with the help of around a dozen tugs, the ship moved 30 degrees left and right for the first time.
Japanese shipowner Shoei Kisen’s chief Yukito Higaki said there were no problems with the controls and propulsion: “As soon as the boat moves again, it should be operational.”
The first ships were diverted
The canal operator’s chief has now ruled out that the sandstorm was solely responsible for the accident. Technical problems or “human error” may also have contributed.
Regardless of the progress, several major shipping companies such as Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd planned to switch to the much longer route through the Cape of Good Hope. French shipping company CMA CGM told AFP news agency on Sunday that it had decided to divert two of its ships through the Cape of Good Hope. Other options for transporting cargo by air or rail “on the Silk Road” are currently being explored.
