The grounded container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for close to a week was almost fully re-floated on Monday and has restarted its engines, raising hopes the busy waterway will soon be reopened, according to a Reuters report from Cairo.
The 400-metre (430-yard) long Ever Given has been straightened in the canal and will undergo initial inspections before being moved, two sources said.
The grounding of the ship has led to massive clogging of ships along one of the world busiest channels which links the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, the heartbeat of European and world trade. Europe also suffered another blow to its international commerce following a rockslide along a busy rail route.
Video posted on social media appeared to show the ship’s stern had swung around, opening space in the canal. Other footage, included cheering and ships’ horns sounding in celebration.
Ship-tracking service VesselFinder has changed the ship’s status to under way on its website.
The Ever Given became jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal in high winds early on Tuesday, halting shipping traffic on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia. About 15% of world shipping traffic sails through the Suez Canal, which is a key source of foreign exchange earnings for Egypt. The current stoppage is costing the canal $14-$15 million a day.
At least 369 vessels were waiting to transit the canal, including dozens of container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels, Suez Canal Authority Chairman Osama Rabie had said on Sunday.
Egypt’s Leth Agencies also tweeted the ship had been partially refloated. The Suez Canal salvage teams had intensified excavation and dredging on Sunday and were hoping a high tide would help them dislodge the ship.
Crude oil prices fell after news the ship had been re-floated, with Brent crude down by $1 per barrel to $63.67.
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.
Some shippers had decided to reroute their cargoes around the Cape of Good Hope, adding which takes an additional 10 days of sailing time and entails much higher fuel costs.
The SCA has said it can accelerate convoys through the canal once the Ever Given is freed.
Separately Europe’s access to international trade has been further impeded after the continent’s busiest freight train route connecting Genoa and Rotterdam has stopped operations until April after a massive rock slide blocked tracks in the Rhine Gorge, a World Heritage Site in Germany.
“We are assuming that operations will be resumed in April,” Volker Hentschel, board member for asset and maintenance management at DB Netz AG of Deutsche Bahn, said as quoted by FAZ, Frankfurt-based media.
One of Europe’s major trade routes was closed on March 15 after a rock slide that left about 15,000 cubic meters of loose rock in the area.
