Cairo: Ship traffic through the Suez Canal has slowly resumed after salvage teams managed to move the 200,000-tonne container ship that had blocked all passage through the crucial waterway for nearly a week. Helped by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugboats managed to wrench the bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the sandy bank of the canal, where it has been lodged since last Tuesday.
"We pulled it off!" said Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, the salvage firm hired to extract the Ever Given, in a statement. "I am excited to announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given, thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again."
Flanked by tugboats, the ship made its way cautiously to the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south end of the canal, where it was undergoing a technical examination to see if it was damaged and whether or not it is safe to proceed to its original destination of Rotterdam.
Billions of dollars worth of goods delayed
About $9 billion worth of goods normally pass through the canal every day, and the backlog of ships numbered nearly 400 when Ever Given was finally moved on Monday. Dozens more had already left the canal's entrance and are making their way along the lengthy alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip - a detour that costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs.
Indian crew
The Japanese owner of Ever Given, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, has said that the entire crew of 25 Indian nationals were safe and no oil leaks have been detected. The front of the ship is wedged around 5 meters into the canal wall, restricting the re-floating efforts. The trouble began on Tuesday last as the strong winds kicked up sands along the banks of the 120-mile narrow Suez canal. The over 200,000-tonne vessel was on its way from China to Rotterdam when the gusts as high as 46 miles an hour swept the dust around it making the crew lose control of the ship. Then the ship dashed into a sandy embankment that blocked nearly the entire canal.
Impact
The 400 meters long ship has choked both ways of one of the busiest canals linking Asia with Europe. A line of 156 large container ships, tankers carrying oil and gas, and bulk vessels with grains have created a massive traffic jam, also referred to as one of the worst shipping jams seen in years. Around 30 per cent of the world’s shipping container volume and 12 per cent of the total global trade of all goods pass through the narrow canal. As per rough estimates, the blockage will cost about $9.6 billion worth of traffic a day.
India chalks out 4-point plan
The Indian government had chalked out a four-point plan to deal with the situation, including advising ships to re-route via Cape of Good Hope. This plan was chalked out in a meeting convened by the logistics division, department of commerce, government of India. It includes prioritisation of cargo, freight rates, advisory to ports and re-routing of ships.
