![]() ![]() The International Chamber of Shipping estimates that $3bn worth of cargo passes through the waterway every day. But by Thursday evening, some large freight ships had begun to divert their routes towards the Cape of Good Hope, suggesting they were betting against the blockage being cleared any time soon. On Thursday morning, container ships were still steering towards the Suez, indicating that the carriers hoped for a timely resolution to the blockage, according to an email seen by TIME from a director of a consultancy to colleagues working with shippers importing and exporting goods via the Suez Canal. The latter entails a complex operation that could take days, if not weeks. Other options include dredging around the ship and offloading ballast water, fuel, or cargo. Two days of trying to achieve that by tugboat have been unsuccessful. ![]() But after next Thursday, tides will decrease for several weeks making it harder to refloat the vessel. Currently, tides in the Suez Canal are getting higher, which means that each day until they peak Monday and Tuesday it should get easier to refloat the Ever Given. The German-language Hamburg Morgenpost at the time listed strong winds as a probable cause and quoted an expert that said attempting to maneuver the vessel in such conditions would be akin to “driving on black ice.” 2019, it crushed a 25-meter long ferry against a pontoon in Hamburg. This is not the first time the 200,000-tonne Ever Given has been involved in an accident. Evergreen Marine, the Taiwanese firm that operates the ship, said it “was suspected of being hit by a sudden strong wind, causing the hull to deviate from the waterway”.Ī full investigation is yet to be undertaken, but vessel management firm Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement said initial investigations had ruled out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding, the BBC reports. But as it traversed through the 205-meter wide channel it lost the ability to steer amid high winds and dust storms, according to a statement by The Suez Canal Authority. Stop back in for updates or check istheshipstillstuck.Like much of the Asia to Europe traffic that transits one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, the Taiwan-operated mega tanker had been bound for Rotterdam. The 1,312-foot ship is often compared to the Empire State Building, which is 1,454 feet tall, including its spire and antenna.ĭespite the serious implications of the jam, some on social media have been making light of the situation including a popular comic and a parody account for a digger at the center of the action. ![]() It can carry 20,000 20-foot containers, according to Reuters, and transports cargo between Asia and Europe. The Panama-flagged Ever Given was built in 2018 and is operated by Evergreen Marine of Taiwan. It's been widened over the years, with the latest project in 2015 at a cost of $8 billion. It normally takes a ship 13 to 15 hours to cross from one end to the other. It's a sea-level canal, without locks, connecting major bodies of water at different altitudes. The canal took 10 years to build and opened in 1869. On average, about 50 ships pass through the canal daily. ![]() Canal revenue for Egypt was $5.6 billion in 2020, according to Arab News. The Suez Canal is operated by Egypt, through its state-owned Suez Canal Authority. Suez Canal Authority via AP Who owns the canal? This photo released by the Suez Canal Authority on Thursday, March 25, 2021, shows a work crew using excavating equipment trying to dig out the keel of the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship, that is wedged across the Suez Canal and blocking traffic in the vital waterway. Tugboats are pulling the Ever Given to the canal's Great Bitter Lake, where it will be inspected. Workers were aided by high tides helped by a full moon. The full moon offers a spring tide, or king tide, in which high tides are higher and the low tides are lower because of the effects of gravity during a straight-line alignment of the Earth, the moon and the sun, USA TODAY reported. Teams of dredgers and tugboats were able to free the ship's stern on Sunday, moving 330 feet from the western bank. It created a traffic jam of more than 360 ships as of Sunday and is costing billions in delayed shipments. The 1,312-foot, 220,000 ton Ever Given, nearly a quarter-mile long, created a shipper's nightmare and captured the public's imagination when it blocked the canal on March 23. The skyscraper-size ship blocking the Suez Canal was freed today, five days after wedging itself sideways into the banks of one of the world's busiest waterways. ![]()
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