Stricken cargo ship finally on the move in Suez Canal

The giant cargo carrier Ever Given which blocked the Suez Canal was finally on the move yesterday, nearly a week after it wedged sideways, threatening the world’s global economy.

“She’s free,” an official involved in the salvage operation said.

Footage from Egyptian state television showed that both ends of the boat had been freed from the sandy banks, and the ship was being pulled through the canal by tugboats.

“Egyptians have succeeded today in ending the crisis of the stranded ship in the Suez Canal,” Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi said in a statement.

He portrayed the efforts as a patriotic victory that assured the world Egypt could be trusted with overseeing the 13pc of all global trade that passes through the crucial waterway.

A fleet of tugboats worked through the night to take advantage of a full moon that led to the highest tide all month, helping to lift the boat.

By yesterday morning, the Ever Given had been 80pc refloated, the Suez Canal Authority said in a statement.

On Sunday, the boat was just 13 feet from the canal’s bank.

“In all certainty work will be complete very soon,” said Lt Gen Osama Rabie, the chief of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), who commended workers for achieving this “heroic feat” and performing “their patriotic duty impeccably”.

The Ever Given, he added in the statement, would sail to the Bitter Lakes section, roughly midpoint on the canal, for a technical inspection.

Heavy winds swung the boat back into its previous position blocking the canal yesterday afternoon, though it did not become grounded again, according to Reuters.

Billions of dollars in trade have been lost each day from the grounding of the ship, which at 400m is as long as the Empire State Building is tall.

As of yesterday morning, 369 vessels were trapped in a massive maritime traffic jam in the canal, according to shipping specialists Leth Agencies.

The turnaround came after a series of delays, over several days, that were due to technical and weather challenges preventing the extraction of the mammoth vessel from the sand and mud of the canal.

A flotilla of tugboats pulled at the ship as dredgers dug up more than 27,000 cubic feet of sand around the vessel to a depth of about 60 feet.

But the promise of favourable tides to help in refloating the ship fell through on several occasions.

By Sunday, two larger tugs registered in the Netherlands and Italy had arrived to assist in the operations.

In the midst of these efforts, President Sissi also ordered preparations for another option: unloading as many of the towering ship’s 18,000 containers as needed to make it refloat again.

That could have taken days, even weeks, because it would require bringing in large cranes and specialised helicopters, according to analysts.

With no clear indication of when the canal will reopen, shipping companies have been directing vessels around the southern tip of Africa, adding a week or two to their journeys and driving up fuel costs. But at least one operator seems to be feeling optimistic about the recent progress.

The car carrier Morning Calm, which had previously detoured away from the canal, made another U-turn yesterday and began heading back towards Egypt, according to Bloomberg.

Over the weekend, Syria announced that it had begun rationing diesel and gasoline because of the blockage. There have also been port and transit delays in many parts of the world while the oil trade has been disrupted, according to an analysis by Lloyd’s List, a shipping journal.

Evergreen Line, which is leasing the Ever Given, confirmed the ship had been successfully refloated and said it would be repositioned and inspected for seaworthiness.

The 369 vessels waiting to transit the canal include dozens of container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels.

The SCA said earlier it would be able to accelerate convoys through the canal once the Ever Given was freed.

“We will not waste one second,” Lt Gen Rabie told Egyptian state television.

He said it could take between two-and-a-half and three days to clear the backlog, and a canal source said more than 100 ships would be able to enter the channel daily.

Shipping group Maersk said the knock-on disruptions to global shipping could take weeks or even months to unravel.

President Sisi, who had not publicly commented on the blockage, said Egypt had ended the crisis and assured resumption of trade through the canal.

Oil prices were about 1pc lower at $63.95 a barrel.

Shares of Taiwan-listed Evergreen Marine Corp – the vessel’s lessor – rose 1.75pc.

About 15pc of world shipping traffic transits the Suez Canal, which is an important source of foreign currency revenue for Egypt.

The stoppage is said to have cost the canal operators between €12m and €12.75m per day.

Shipping rates for oil product tankers nearly doubled after the ship became stranded, and the blockage has disrupted global supply chains, threatening costly delays for companies already dealing with Covid-19 restrictions.

Maersk was among shippers rerouting cargoes around the southern tip of Africa, adding up to two weeks to journeys and extra fuel costs.