Suez Canal latest: Grounded Ever Given container ship could be freed this week
A giant shipping container blocking the Suez Canal could be freed by the start of this week, a firm working to free the vessel has said.
The 400-metre long Ever Given became wedged in the canal on Tuesday, wreaking havoc for global shipping and forcing companies to reroute their vessels around Africa.
The grounding has caused a massive traffic jam in the waterway, with hundreds of ships waiting to pass through.
Dredgers had removed roughly 20,000 tonnes of sand from around the ship’s bow by Friday, but tugging efforts to free the ship were paused last night.
This week
Peter Berdowski, chief executive of Dutch dredging firm Boskalis, said the Ever Given could be freed by early this week if heavier tugboats, dredging and a high tide succeed in dislodging it.
Boskalis owns Smit Salvage, which was brought in by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) this week to help with efforts to free the stranded boat.
“The bow is really stuck in the sandy clay, but the stern has not been pushed totally into the clay, which is positive. We can try to use that as leverage to pull it loose,” Berdowski told local media.
“Heavy tugboats, with a combined capacity of 400 tonnes, will arrive this weekend. We hope that a combination of the tugboats, dredging of sand at the bow and a high tide will enable us to get the ship loose at the beginning of [this] week.”
Around 15 per cent of all shipping passes through the canal, and the blockage has wreaked havoc for global supply chains.
Shipping rates for oil tankers have nearly doubled since the ship became stranded and companies are facing costly delays to their deliveries.
Shippers that decide to re-route around the Cape of Good Hope face an additional two weeks on journey times, as well as extra fuel costs.
SCA chairman Osama Rabie today said efforts to dislodge the ship had caused it to move, but could not say when the vessel would be refloated.
Asked about potential financial penalties for the incident, Rabie said these would be decided following an investigation.