In this photo released by Suez Canal Authority, the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship is pulled by Suez Canal tugboats, in the Suez Canal, Egypt, Monday, March 29, 2021. Engineers on Monday "partially refloated " the colossal container ship that continues to block traffic through the Suez Canal, authorities said, without providing further details about when the vessel would be set free.
(Suez Canal Authority via AP)
(Suez Canal Authority via AP)
In this photo released by Suez Canal Authority, the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship is pulled by Suez Canal tugboats, in the Suez Canal, Egypt, Monday, March 29, 2021. Engineers on Monday "partially refloated " the colossal container ship that continues to block traffic through the Suez Canal, authorities said, without providing further details about when the vessel would be set free.
(Washington) — A 1,300-foot, 220,000-ton container ship that has been blocking traffic in the Suez Canal for nearly a week is finally free and once again underway, onboard tracking sites and livestreamed video from the scene indicate.
عودة الملاحة في #قناة_السويس إلى نشاطها الطبيعي #السفينة_الجانحة #تحيا_مصر ❤️🇪🇬 pic.twitter.com/mgWX2djq6d
— السويس | SUEZ (@suez_egypt2020) March 29, 2021
Monday afternoon local time, as horns blared in apparent celebration for having freed the grounded ship, the Ever Given was seen slowly making its way in the canal. Marinetraffic.com showed the vessel pointed north for the first time since last Tuesday, when in high winds and low visibility, it became cross-ways in the canal and ran aground, shutting down all ship traffic in the vital waterway.
“She’s free,” an official involved in the salvage operation said, according to Reuters.
The giant Ever Given is among the largest container ships currently in operation — at roughly twice as long as the canal is wide.
Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, announced early Monday that the stern of the Ever Given container ship had been moved 102 meters from shore; it had been only a few meters from land.
Despite a flotilla of tug boats and dredgers, two separate attempts to refloat the vessel over the weekend failed, according to shipping authorities.
Evergreen Marine, the Taiwan-based company that operates the ship, said Sunday that dredging efforts had removed more than 20,000 tons of sand and mud, which loosened the ship’s bow, and that the ship’s stern had “been cleared from the sand bank.”
The successful effort to free the ship means at least 369 vessels backed up waiting to transit the canal, including dozens of container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels, can now move, Rabie said, according to Reuters.
Planet Labs Inc. / AP Photo
A satellite image shows the cargo ship MV Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt. Attempts to free the mammoth container ship stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal were almost successful Monday morning.
He told Egyptian television earlier that the Canal Authority would “not waste one second” in moving the delayed ships through the waterway. Rabie said it could take up to three days to clear the backlog of ships.
Maersk, the world’s largest container line, said the knock-on disruptions to global shipping could take weeks or months to unravel.
Freeing the ship from its spot on the Suez Canal will allow billions of dollars worth of cargo to resume transits and obviate the need for vessels to take a long and expensive detour around the tip of Africa to reach ports in Asia.
A prolonged delay could have increased the cost of shipping, complicated manufacturing and ultimately driven up prices, logistics experts previously told NPR.
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