Salvage teams yesterday set free a colossal container ship that has halted global trade through the Suez Canal, a canal services firm said, bringing an end to a crisis that for nearly a week clogged one of the world’s most vital maritime arteries.
Helped by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugboats managed to wrench the bulbous bow of the skyscraper-sized MV Ever Given from the canal’s sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since Tuesday last week.
After hauling the fully laden vessel over the canal bank, the salvage team was pulling the vessel toward the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south end of the canal, where the ship was to undergo a technical inspection, canal authorities said.
Photo: Reuters
Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com confirmed that the ship was moving away from the shoreline toward the center of the artery.
Video released by the Suez Canal Authority showed the Ever Given being escorted by the tugboats that helped free it, each sounding off their horns in celebration after nearly a week of chaos.
The obstruction has created a massive traffic jam in the vital passage, holding up US$9 billion each day in global trade and straining supply chains already burdened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
It remained unclear when traffic through the canal would return to normal. At least 367 vessels, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, have piled up at either end of the canal, waiting to pass.
Data firm Refinitiv estimated it could take more than 10 days to clear the backlog of ships.
Meanwhile, dozens of vessels have opted for the alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip — a 5,000km detour that adds about two weeks to journeys, and costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs.
The freeing of the vessel came after dredgers vacuumed up sand and mud from the vessel’s bow, and 10 tugboats pushed and pulled the vessel for five days, managing to partially refloat it at dawn.
It was not clear whether the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship leased by Taiwanese company Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), which was hauling goods from Asia to Europe, would continue to its original destination of Rotterdam, Netherlands, or if it would need to enter another port for repairs.
Ship operators did not offer a time line for the reopening of the crucial canal, which carries more than 10 percent of global trade, including 7 percent of the world’s oil. More then 19,000 ships passed through last year.
Millions of barrels of oil and liquefied natural gas flow through the artery from the Persian Gulf to Europe and North America.
The unprecedented shutdown had threatened to disrupt oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East, and raised fears of extended delays, goods shortages and rising costs for consumers.
The salvage operation successfully relied on tugs and dredgers alone, allowing authorities to avoid the far more complex and lengthy task of lightening the vessel by offloading its 20,000 containers.
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