Cairo – Marine traffic through The Suez Canal remained blocked For the third day in a row on Thursday, dozens of ships were stranded at both the north and south entrances for the short route between Asia and Africa. On Tuesday, the world’s largest cargo ship turned to the side and got stuck in a narrow canal, and one of the teams in charge of unloading the ship said it could take weeks to re-launch.
Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has announced that navigation from the canal will be “temporarily suspended” until the Panamanian-flagged container ship MV Ever is resumed.
Suez Canal Authority
On Wednesday, the SCAA allowed 13 ships to enter from the Mediterranean, at the northern end of the boat, in the hope that the Ever given would quickly close and other cargo ships would be able to continue their voyage. But those ships made it just a lake in the middle of the canal, and they couldn’t go anywhere fast.
Egypt is using eight large tugboats and excavation equipment along the canal, but so far all attempts to replant the nearly one-mile-long, 247,000-ton container ship have failed.
Suez Canal Authority
The SCAA said Thursday that an “alternative scenario” is being adopted, with ships entering the canal from the north on Wednesday “anchored in the Bitter Lakes waiting area, until navigation is fully resumed.”
Evergreen Marine Corp of Taiwan, which operates the ship on lease on behalf of its own Japanese company, has hired Dutch company Smit Selvage and Japan’s Nippon Salvage to work with the ship’s captain and the Suez Canal Authority. Float it again.
Peter Berdowski, CEO of Bosklis, a Dutch company owned by Smit Selvaj, said on Thursday that it was too early to decide how long the job would take.
“We can’t rule out the possibility that it could take weeks, depending on the situation,” Berdowski told the Dutch television program “Nieuwsuer,” according to Reuters. Shipping sources told Reuters that if the delays continued, the ships could likely resume moving around the southern part of Africa, adding thousands of miles and about a week to travel.
Suez Canal Authority
Shoi Kisen, a Japanese company owned by Ever Giwed, told the Associated Press that it was cooperating with local authorities, but that “operations are extremely difficult.”
“We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to ships traveling to or from the Suez Canal and to all concerned,” the company said.
According to Reuters, about 0% of the world’s shipping container goods typically pass through the Suez Canal every day – a journey of about six hours – about 12% of the total goods traded globally, according to Reuters.
The news agency quoted industry consultancy Coupler as saying that while the canal facilitates transport of only 4. %% of the world’s total oil and oil product flows, prolonged disruptions could affect supplies to Asia and Europe.
In the meantime, the incident – and in particular the fact that global trade has been disrupted despite a very large ship, and an attempt to update the lone excavator’s photos of the ship’s hull – inspired memes’ wealth on social media. Was. . CBS’s own “sweetheart” Stephen Colbert also donned a captain’s hat to cover up the maritime tragedy on Wednesday evening’s show.
As entertainment continues online, stress levels will continue to rise for both shipowners, who have to pay the bill for rescue operations, and the Egyptian canal authority, which was already suffering from declining revenue due to the Kovid epidemic. .
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