ISMAIL, Egypt (AP) – Tugboats and a specialized suction dredger worked on Friday to deploy a giant container ship that has been stranded sideways in Egypt’s Suez Canal for the past three days, blocking a crucial waterway for global shipping.
The Ever Give, a Panama-flagged ship carrying goods between Asia and Europe, has stopped in the narrow channel between Africa and the Sinai Peninsula. It was blocked in a single-lane portion of the canal, about six kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.
The ship, owned by the Japanese company Shoei Kisen KK, blocked traffic in the canal, causing headaches for global trade.
About 10% of world trade flows through the canal, which is especially important for oil transportation. The closure could also affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East.
At least 150 ships were waiting for Ever Date to be cleaned, including ships near Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea, Port Suez on the Red Sea and those already stranded in the canal system on Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, said Leth Agencies, which provides services for the channel.
The ship remained on the ground since Friday morning, Leth agencies added. It remains unclear when the route will reopen.
An Egyptian official from the Suez Canal Authority described the work as complex and said that those trying to dislodge the ship want to avoid complications that could prolong the closure of the canal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, as he was not allowed to speak to journalists.
Ever’s bow touched the east wall, while its stern seemed to sit on the west wall.
A team from Boskalis, a Dutch rescue company, began working with the canal authority on Thursday. Rescue efforts focused on dredging to remove sand and mud around the ship’s bow port.
The Suez Canal Authority, which operates the waterway, has deployed tugs and a specialized suction dredger, which is capable of moving 2,000 cubic meters of material every hour.
The Suez Canal Authority said late Thursday that it will have to remove between 15,000 and 20,000 cubic meters (530,000 – 706,000 cubic feet) of sand to reach a depth of 12 to 16 meters (39 to 52 feet). This depth will allow the ship to float freely again, he said.
It was not clear as soon as he made Ever Give embedded on Tuesday. GAC, a global transportation and logistics company, said the ship suffered an uninterrupted outage.
Evergreen Marine Corp., a major Taiwanese shipping company operating the ship, said in a statement that Ever Date was overwhelmed by strong winds when it entered the Red Sea canal, but that none of its containers sunk.
Suez Canal authorities blamed bad weather for the incident.
Using data from automatic vessel tracking systems at sea, the data company Refinitiv shared an analysis with the AP, showing that more than 300 ships remained on the road to the waterway in the next two weeks.
Some ships may still change course, but the crushing of ships listing the Suez Canal as a destination shows that there is an even longer delay for shippers already under pressure amid the coronavirus pandemic.