Suez Channel News Live: Breaking News As Shipping Route Blocked By Ship Ever Given

The blockage caused by the Always given could force companies to redirect their ships around the Cape of Good Hope in the southern tip of Africa, an expert has said The independent.

Chris Evans, an international supply chain expert at Colliers International, told our trade correspondent Ben chapman that delays and knock-on effects will add up quickly. Re-floating the Always given it could take two days, possibly less.

He also suggested that consumers shouldn’t worry about supply gaps.

Mr Evans said: “If it is not dispatched quickly, it will cause a lot of delays and people will have to start looking for freight shipments through the Cape of Good Hope.

“It will cause setbacks and ship crowding in various ports in Europe. Everything behind will come running.

“The unloading of the vessels is already slow due to Covid procedures, as is the collection of containers.

“There is also a shortage of supply of containers. This is a large pent-up demand to spend and China is back to work after the Chinese New Year holidays.

“The domino effect, the delays, they start to add up very quickly. We will have to go back to that old-fashioned thing: patience.

“Most ships can largely absorb a 48-hour delay, but ships that are late at port don’t take long to cause problems.

“Only modern ports like London and Thames Gateway can afford it. Volume builds up early, it doesn’t take long.

“It will cause delays. There is no point in criticizing him. It is not welcome, but it is so.

“I wouldn’t have thought there would be a major cost impact for businesses. We shouldn’t worry too much about product supply gaps. “

The MV Ever Given remains stuck on the shore of the Suez Canal.

The shipment tracking maps show that the traffic is now piling up.

Satellite images have been released showing an aerial view of Ever Given on the ground.

Social media users have inevitably converted Always given incident in a wide range of memes after an Instagram user on another waiting cargo ship snapped a photo of the beached giant.

The image below seems to show how deeply Always givenThe bow could be embedded in the bank of the Suez Canal.

Large boats often have bulbous bows, a feature below the waterline designed to smooth the flow of water over the rest of the hull and therefore improve efficiency.

A video posted on YouTube in 2018 seems to show that the huge Always given has one of these. Without load, the lower hull of the boat is more visible.

Images released by Suez Canal authorities suggest that the bulb is completely buried in the sand on the canal bank.

I thought it wasn’t immediately clear why Always green GAC, a global transportation and logistics company, which traveled sideways through the canal, said it had suffered “a blackout while traveling north.”

Dr. Sal Mercogliano, from Campbell University, told BBC Radio 4 Today program that this would have removed control of the ship’s rudder.

Evergreen Marine Corp., a major Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the vessel, said in a statement that Always given it had been overcome by strong winds when it entered the Suez Canal from the Red Sea.

An Egyptian official also blamed the wind. Forecasters said strong winds and a sandstorm hit the area Tuesday, with gusts of up to 50 km / h.

“The entire crew is safe and accounted for,” said Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, who runs Ever Given. “There have been no reports of injuries or contamination.”

The management company denied that the ship lost power.

Additional information from Associated Press

Dr Sal Mercogliano, a professor of maritime history at Campbell University, said ships had run aground in the canal before, but never one this large and one that did not block the entire waterway.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today Program: “Being stranded as it is, all the way up on the eastern shore, and it is heading towards the port, it is very difficult to get it out.

“They are also in a very dangerous and precarious position, with both ends of the boat on the beach, there is a possibility that the boat will sink in the middle.

“If they can’t get her out of that position with the tugs, they’re going to have to start getting fuel out of her and then into the containers.

“But the difficulty in removing the containers is that it is so high, so high, that it would be very difficult to put cranes of the right size there.

A giant container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal on Tuesday, blocking one of the world’s busiest trade routes in both directions for hours. write Kate ng.

The 200,000 tonnes Ever Given was heading from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean when it got stuck sideways in the canal around 5.40am GMT, according to shipping agent GAC.

Data from the vessel tracking site Marine Traffic shows that the ship is still in the same position, with at least five tugs attempting to free it.