The massive ship blocking the Suez Canal could turn out to be a titanic pain in the butt, reportedly triggering a shortage of toilet paper that had not been seen since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
The owner of Ever given, the 200,000-ton giant that ran aground this week when strong winds turned it to one side, has apologized for the mega-blockade, which is causing a global trade crisis.
But the proverbial st could hit the fan if it triggers another TP crisis, as a flotilla of cargo ships gets trapped behind the huge ship.
Walter Schalka, CEO of Brazilian wood pulp company Suzano SA, told Bloomberg News that the company was struggling to transport raw material for toilet paper amid delays.
Suez’s bottleneck comes amid the existing shortage of shipping containers caused by rising demand in China and declining supplies, Express reports.
Schalka is concerned that shipping problems will worsen, causing major disruptions in the pulp trade that could affect toilet paper supplies if producers do not have sufficient inventories, according to Bloomberg.
Suzano, based in Sao Paulo, accounts for about a third of the world’s hardwood pulp supplies.
About 50 ships usually pass through the Suez Canal daily, but have been stranded since Taiwan’s Ever Given ran aground.
Lars Jensen, an expert in container transport in Denmark, told Mirror UK that shipping daily household items will be affected, including toilet rolls.
“Basically anything you see in stores,” he said.
Jensen said the blocked ship is another blow to the global shipping system already broken by the pandemic disruption.
“This takes away capacity from a system that is already hungry for capacity,” he said, The Sun reported.
Peter Berdowski, CEO of the Dutch company Boskalis, which is trying to evacuate the gargantuan ship, said it was too early to say how long it could take.
According to The Sun, the bow and stern had risen against both sides of the canal.
“We can’t rule out that it may take weeks, depending on the situation,” Berdowski told Dutch TV. “It’s like a huge beached whale. It’s a huge weight in the sand. “
He added: “We could have to work with a combination of weight reduction by removing containers, oil and water from the ship, tugs and sand dredging.”