Ship blocking Suez Canal creates new setback for global trade
Effort to refloat ship could take weeks and blockage is set to disrupt supply of goods like oil, petrol and grain
ISMAILIA, EGYPT : A container ship blocking the Suez Canal like a "beached whale" created a new setback for global trade as officials stopped all ships entering the channel yesterday and the salvage company said it may take weeks to free.
The 400m Ever Given, almost as long as the Empire State Building is high, is blocking transit in both directions through one of the world's busiest shipping channels for trade linking Asia and Europe.
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said eight tugs were working to move the vessel, which got stuck across the single-lane southern stretch of the canal on Tuesday morning amid high winds and a dust storm.
Salvage teams from the Netherlands and Japan have been hired to refloat the ship, the company leasing the vessel said yesterday.
Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp said Dutch firm Smit Salvage and Japan's Nippon Salvage had been appointed by the ship's owner and would work alongside its captain and the SCA on a plan to refloat it.
"We can't exclude it might take weeks, depending on the situation," said Mr Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch company Boskalis, the parent company of Smit Salvage.
A total of 156 container ships, tankers carrying oil and petrol, and bulk vessels hauling grain have backed up at either end of the canal, Egypt's Leith Agencies said, creating one of the worst shipping jams seen for years.
The blockage comes on top of the disruption to world trade already caused by Covid-19, with trade volumes hit by high rates of ship cancellations, shortages of containers and slower handling speeds at ports.
The SCA, which had allowed some vessels to enter the canal in the hope the blockage could be cleared, said it had temporarily suspended all traffic.
Mr Berdowski said the ship's bow and stern had been lifted up against either side of the canal.
"It is like an enormous beached whale. It's an enormous weight on the sand. We might have to work with a combination of reducing the weight by removing containers, oil and water from the ship, tug boats and dredging of sand."
Roughly 30 per cent of the world's shipping container volume transits through the 193km Suez Canal daily, and about 12 per cent of total global trade of all goods.
Shipping experts say that if the blockage is not cleared, some shipping may reroute around Africa, which would add roughly a week to the journey.
"Every port in Western Europe is going to feel this," Mr Leon Willems, a spokesman for Rotterdam Port, Europe's largest, said. "We hope for both companies and consumers that it will be resolved soon. When these ships do arrive in Europe, there will inevitably be longer waiting times."
Transport Minister Ong Ye Kung said yesterday supplies to Singapore and the region may be temporarily disrupted.
Should that happen, some drawdown on existing inventories will become necessary, Mr Ong wrote in a Facebook post.
"If the disruption is prolonged, PSA may see schedule disruptions when shipping lines reroute their journeys.
"It will have to plan ahead and ensure operations remain smooth," Mr Ong said.
PSA is a Singapore-based global port operator. - REUTERS, THE STRAITS TIMES
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