CAIRO (Reuters) – Europe’s shortest sea route to Asia was blocked on Wednesday as 10 tugs struggled to free one of the world’s largest container vessels after stranding in the Suez Canal.
The author of 400 meters, 224,000 tons that has been given, ran aground on Tuesday morning after losing the ability to head amid strong winds and dust storm, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) reported in a statement.
Approximately 30% of the world’s container shipping volumes pass through the canal every day and transport from fuel to consumer goods. The main alternative route for ships traveling between Asia and Europe, around the African Cape, takes another week to sail.
GAC, a Dubai-based shipping service company, said authorities were still working to release the vessel by mid-Wednesday afternoon and that information it had previously received stating the vessel was partially re-floated was inaccurate.
Images released by the SCA appeared to show the ship positioned diagonally across the canal, blocking its entire width as tugs attempted to evacuate it. The photos showed an excavator pulling earth and rock from the shore of the canal around the bow of the ship.
An official said work to clear the ship could continue into the night, weather permitting.
The ASC president told local media that despite the blockade, a convoy to the south was moving and that the authority was trying to keep traffic circulating between the waiting areas as best it could while the efforts continued. recovery.
“Once we get this boat out, that’s it, things will return to normal. God willing, we will finish today, “President Osama Rabie said. The authority was considering compensation for backward ships, he said.
About 12% of world trade volume passes through the canal and is a major source of foreign exchange for Egypt, which generated $ 5.6 billion in 2020.
Tracking maps had shown the ship landed on the southernmost stretch of the waterway, between the Great Bitter Lake and the Red Sea port of Suez.
At least 30 boats were stranded north of Ever done and three south, local sources said. Several dozen boats grouped around the north and south entrances of the canal could also be seen.
REBALANCING EFFORTS
The SCA said it was trying to rebalance the vessel and local sources said efforts could move towards excavating the vessel if the tugs were unable to release it.
Dutch maritime services company Boskalis said its subsidiary Smit Salvage had been hired to help with the operation and was sending ten people to Egypt.
In these cases, “you really have to do the calculations to understand how solid (and) the earth is (and) how much power you can exert without damaging the ship,” Boskalis spokesman Martijn Schuttevaer told Reuters.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), the ship’s technical manager, said Ever Give had run aground on the canal around 05:40 GMT on Tuesday. It was said that there was an ongoing investigation.
BSM said the crew was safe and there were no reports of pollution. A BSM spokesman said the ship was owned by Japanese Shoei Kisen KK, who declined to provide further details. Shoei Kisen KK could not be reached for comment.
Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corp., which rents the boat, said the owner told him that the boat was “suspected to have been hit by a sudden strong wind, which caused the hull to deviate from (the) track.” fluvial and accidentally hit the bottom ”.
The ship is likely to be insured for between $ 100 million and $ 140 million, insurance brokers say.
SUPPLY CONCERNS
Dozens of ships carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) and retail goods were unable to navigate the canal on Wednesday, which could disrupt supplies to world markets, shipping sources said.
Oil analytics firm Vortexa said ten oil tankers with 13 million barrels of crude oil could be affected. Oil prices rose more than 2%. [O/R]
As of Wednesday, five LNG-laden tankers were unable to cross the canal due to the container ship ashore, according to data information firm Kpler.
Of the five, three went to Asia and two went to Europe, said Rebecca Chia, an analyst at Kpler. He said if congestion persists until the end of this week, it would affect the traffic of 15 tankers.
During 2020, about 19,000 ships, or an average of 51.5 daily, passed through the canal, according to the SCA.
If the Ever Ever remained trapped for up to 48 hours, “the impact will be limited to a gradual worsening of the delays of already very bad ships,” said Niels Madsen, vice president of Sea-Intelligence Products and Operations based in Denmark. .
“If, on the other hand, the Suez Canal continues to be blocked for another 3-5 days, it will start to have very serious global ramifications,” he said.
Reports by Yusri Mohamed in Ismailia, Egypt, and Jessica Jaganathan, Florence Tan, Roslan Khasawneh, Gavin Maguire and Koustav Samanta in Singapore, Yimou Lee in Taipei, and Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; Additional reports by Carolyn Cohn and Jonathan Saul in London, Mahmoud Mourad in Cairo, Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam; Written by Aidan Lewis; Edited by Tom Hogue, Jan Harvey and Mark Potter