The ‘Ever Given’ container ship, stuck in the Suez Canal following a sandstorm last Tuesday, is once again free. The shipping service provider Inchcape Shipping writes on Twitter, explaining that the operations to free the ship were successfully completed at 4.30 this morning. “More information on the next steps will follow once they are known,” explains the social ‘twitter’.
Exploited the high tide
As the service provider explained, during the night of the full moon the high tide facilitated the operations to free the container ship. It is unclear when the Suez Canal will reopen to traffic. According to the Suez Canal Authority (Sca), there are about 370 ships, including 25 oil tankers, stranded at either end of the Suez Canal awaiting transit. According to the Sca, with the stop, Egypt loses about 13-14 million dollars in revenue every day and yesterday President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi had ordered to start preparations for the possibility of easing the load of Ever Given facilitate operations.
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The 400-meter-long container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week has started to move, maritime traffic observation websites reported this morning.
Ten giant tugs employed
Vesselfinder and Myshiptracking show how the stern of the ship, which weighs more than 200,000 tons, has moved away from the west bank of the canal. The Suez Canal Authority (Sca) said this morning that “the towing maneuvers to re-float the container ship Ever Given began with the help of 10 giant tugs”. The shipping company Inchcape for its part announced that the ship has been “refloated”, according to several media reports. Ever Given had been blocked since Tuesday diagonally across the canal, completely obstructing the approximately 300-meter-wide waterway, one of the busiest in the world. The Suez Canal, about 190 km long, handles about 10% of the international maritime trade and each day it is stopped causes significant delays and costs. In total, nearly 400 ships remained stuck at the ends and center of the channel connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, according to Sca. At least a dozen tugs and dredgers to suck sand from under the ship were mobilized during the operations.