A giant container ship remained stuck sideways in Egypt’s Suez Canal for a fifth day on Saturday, as authorities prepared to make new attempts to free the ship and reopen the important east-west route for global shipping.
The Ever Given, a ship with the Panama flag that transports cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground on Tuesday in the narrow canal that runs between Africa and the Sinai Peninsula. The massive ship got stuck in a single field stretch of the canal, about 6 kilometers north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez. Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the technical director of Ever Given, said an attempt on Friday to free it failed. Plans are underway to pump water from the ship’s interior, and two more tugs will arrive by Sunday to join others who are already trying to move the massive ship, it is said.
An official at the Suez Canal Authority said they planned to make at least two attempts on Saturday to free the ship when high tide subsides. He said the timing depends on the tide. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to inform journalists. Egyptian authorities have banned media access to the site. The Channel Authority said its commander, Lieutenant General Osama Rabei, would hold a press conference on Saturday in the city of Suez, a few kilometers from the ship’s site.
Shoei Kisen’s President Yukito Higaki told a news conference at the company’s headquarters in Imabari in western Japan that 10 tugboats were deployed and workers dredged the banks and seabed near the ship’s arch to try to get it floating again when high tide begins to flow. Shoei Kisen said in a statement on Saturday that the company is considering removing containers to light the ship if the escape operation fails, but it would be a difficult operation. The White House said it had offered to help Egypt reopen the canal.
“We have equipment and capabilities that most countries do not have and we see what we can do and what help we can be,” President Joe Biden told reporters Friday. An initial investigation showed that the ship ran aground due to strong winds and ruled out mechanical or engine failure, said the company and the canal authority GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, had previously said the ship had experienced a power outage, but it did not work out.
A traffic jam grew to about 280 vessels on Saturday off the Suez Canal, according to channel service provider Leth Agencies. Some ships began to change course and dozens of ships were still on their way to the waterway, according to the computer company Refinitiv. An extended closure of the important waterway would cause delays in the global transport chain. About 19,000 ships passed through the canal last year, according to official figures. About 10% of world trade flows through the canal, which is especially important for oil transportation.
The closure could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East. It remained unclear how long the blockade would last. Even after the reopening of the channel linking factories in Asia to consumers in Europe, the waiting containers are likely to arrive in busy ports, forcing them to face further delays before being unloaded. Apparently expecting long delays, the owners of the fixed vessel diverted a sister ship, the Ever Greet, on a course around Africa instead according to satellite data.
Others are also distracted. The liquefied natural gas company Pan Americas changed course in the middle of the Atlantic and now aimed south to go around the southern tip of Africa, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com.
Turkey on Friday said it was also ready to distribute ships to free the giant container ship.
