The Ever given, a container ship almost every time the Empire State Building is high, ran aground on the Egyptian Channel on Tuesday after being caught by 40-knot winds and a sandstorm.
Tugs are now expected to be able to make use of the winds and tides on Saturday to evacuate the 224,000-ton ship, Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chief Osama Rabie told Egyptian magazine Youm7.
Towing and towing maneuvers for the ship began Friday evening, with nine tugs pulling from the front of the giant container after the dredging work was completed, Rabie said.
He added that pull maneuvers require the availability of several factors, including winds and tides.
More than 260 boats are waiting for traffic on the blocked waterway, including 13 carrying cattle, and the total number is expected to increase as the crisis continues, the marine surveillance website Marine Traffic told CNN.
If the last attempt to re-float the ship fails, the ship, which measures 400 meters long and 59 meters wide, could still be released “early next week”, according to plans set by the head of a Dutch rescue company.
Peter Berdowski of Boskalis, a sister company to Dutch firm SMIT Salvage, told Dutch news program “Nieuwsuur” that his plan A is to try to start the ship without removing the containers from the deck.
“There are two heavy tugs on the way,” he said Friday evening. “Together they have a traction power of about 400 tons. So they’re very big guys. They’re coming this weekend.”
Most importantly, he said, a more thorough investigation has shown that the stern of the ship “does not push completely into the clay.” This would allow tugs to harness the power of the lever by pulling the stern, he said.
He said the hope is that its traction power, combined with the dredging work that is now underway, a 40 to 50-centimeter high tide next week, and that the “lever power” of the stern of the boat is relatively free – it would be enough “to release the boat early next week”.
If that fails, Berdowski also established a plan B.
“At the same time, we are already mobilizing a crane,” he said. “This will also be delivered this weekend, which will allow us to remove the containers from the front of the ship.”
He said this would potentially involve removing up to 600 containers, to lighten the load at the bow of the ship and therefore off the canal.
“Getting off the boat is one thing, but you also have to get rid of those 600 containers somewhere,” he said. “Right next to the ship there is only desert. Therefore, the disposal of these containers also becomes an enigma.”
This could mean another delay of days. “But the most important thing is that, in principle, we align everything, in a logical sequence, by taking the necessary steps,” Berdowski said.
Fears for cattle
Meanwhile, the billions of lives and sensitive products worth billions of dollars are left behind on blocked roadblocks, including ships carrying livestock to different countries in Europe and Asia.
The director of the EU NGO Animals International, Gabriel Paun, warned that thousands of animals transported in 13 ships, mostly Romanians, could be at risk of death if the situation is not resolved in the coming days.
Currently, there are more cattle-carrying boats approaching the Suez Canal, Paun said.
“We are sitting in the face of a major tragedy if the canal is not released in the next 24 hours because there are ships that will run out [livestock] food and water in the next two days, ”Paun said.
Some ships have food and water for six more days and “if they decide to return to Romania today, they will have a chance, but if the blockade lasts two to six more days we will have a disaster,” Paun added.
A cattle-carrying vessel, the Nabolsi, has been sailing for 21 days after leaving Colombia on March 6 and is now awaiting passage through the blocked channel with animals on board, Marine Traffic spokesman Georgios Hatzimanolis said.
More than 18,800 ships with a dead weight of 1.17 billion tonnes passed through the canal during 2020. This represents an average of 51.5 ships a day.
Ship diversion
At least ten ships, including oil and LNG and container vessels, had been diverted from the canal since Friday, according to traffic and data information firm Kpler.
“There are already several ships … ignoring [the route from the Mediterranean into the canal] and now they’re heading south … it’s the right time to make that decision, ”said Lars Jensen, head of Sea Intelligence Consulting, a company that offers advice to the shipping industry.
“So for now, it will look like the ships waiting in line [in the canal], would simply cross [their] fingers and we hope this is resolved, “he added.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of India, the Indian government said on Friday that it had advised its shipping lines to explore the option of redirecting vessels by the Cape of Good Hope to South Africa while the situation on the canal be resolved. .
It was noted that this route change usually takes an additional 15 days.
This Suez Canal route is used by Indian exporters and importers to make $ 200 billion worth of trade with North America, South America and Europe, according to the statement. The ministry added that it would identify and prioritize the perishable burden for the movement.
Even before Ever Give ran aground, global supply chains stretched to the limits, making the movement of goods around the world much more costly and causing some products to be in short supply. A prolonged closure of the key route between Asia, Europe and North America would only make things worse.
Discussing the question of possible claims for damages, Toshiaki Fujiwara, CEO of Shoei Kisen KK, said on Friday that “the company has not received any claims at this time,” adding that “it may take one.” [to] two or more years to get to these details “.
Evergreen Marine, the Taiwanese company that operates the ship, has claimed that Shoei Kisen KK is responsible for the crash, Fujiwara confirmed.
Magdy Samaan reported on Cairo, Mostafa Salem in Abu Dhabi and Mick Krever in London, while Laura Smith-Spark wrote in London. CNN’s Jessie Yeung, Sugam Pokharel, Tim Lister and Pamela Boykoff contributed to this report.