Joe Biden said the United States is studying what it can do to help free the Ever Given 400-meter container ship from its position by blocking the Suez Canal, as the trade route crisis stretched out over the fifth day.
“We have equipment and capacity that most countries do not have. And we are seeing what we can help, ”said the US president on Friday in Delaware. His comments came after a US official said the Navy was prepared to send a team of dredging experts to the channel, but was awaiting approval from local authorities.
Meanwhile, as the last effort to dislodge the ship with tugboats was suspended on Friday night, shipping companies began to redirect cargo to another place to avoid aggravating the enormous impasse that formed at each end of the commercial artery. crucial.
Maersk said 22 of its ships have been affected so far and has so far redirected two of its ships around the Cape of Good Hope, in the far south of Africa.
A spokesman said: “We are closely monitoring the development of the affected vessel’s floating operations to better assess the measures to be taken to mitigate the delay of the affected cargo. The longer it takes to float the ship again, the greater the risk of seeing serious bottlenecks in northern European ports and the greater the obstacle to clear. “
The Japanese owner of the ship, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, said he plans to release the ship on Saturday afternoon, UK time, but cannot guarantee that the effort will be complete by then.
Shipping fees for oil tankers have almost doubled since the ship ran aground, and efforts to free the giant ship can take weeks and be complicated by unstable weather, threatening costly delays for companies already handling Covid-19 restrictions.
A Dutch rescue team confirmed that two additional tugs will arrive on Sunday to help displace the ship, said Ever Given technical manager Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM).
Previously, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said efforts to free the ship by tugboat were resumed after dredging operations on its bow were completed to remove 20,000 cubic meters of sand.
“Towing operations require the availability of a number of supporting factors, including wind and tidal direction, which makes the technical process complex,” said the official.
The SCA welcomed the offer from the US to help. Turkey also said it could send a ship to the canal, in the midst of Ankara’s effort to repair ties with Egypt after years of animosity.
The suspension of traffic along the canal that connects Europe to Asia has aggravated the problems for shipping companies.
The blockade could cost global trade $ 6 billion to $ 10 billion a week, a study by German insurer Allianz showed on Friday.
Rating agency Moody’s expects auto parts and manufacturing suppliers in Europe to be the most affected because they operate supply chains “just-in-time” and said port congestion and further supply chain delays are “inevitable” .
Retired British Royal Navy commander Tom Sharpe said the best bet for the next attempt would be a high tide on Sunday, but as the ship was stranded in the front and rear, there was a risk that the hull would break if rescuers pull very hard.
Mohab Mamish, the Egyptian presidential advisor for Suez Canal and seaport projects, told MBC Misr TV that a floating crane should be used to transfer some of Ever Given’s containers to another ship to make the ship lighter and allow it float.
Oil prices rose more than 3% on Friday, as more than 30 tankers have remained idle on both sides of the channel since Tuesday, Refinitiv’s navigation data showed. However, there is low seasonal demand for crude oil and liquefied natural gas, which is likely to mitigate the impact on prices, analysts said.
About 4 million barrels of CPC mix, mainly from Kazakhstan, and some Russian Urals waited with oil tankers transporting crude oil from Libya, Azeri and part of the North Sea to Asian refiners, traders said.
Egypt’s oil pipeline operator SUMED approached crude oil traders to see if they wanted to reserve space in the system, but so far traders prefer to wait to avoid high additional costs.
Analysts expect a bigger impact on the price of smaller tankers that carry oil products, such as naphtha and fuel oil, for export from Europe to Asia, if the channel remains closed for weeks.
Redirecting ships around the Cape of Good Hope could add about two weeks and extra fuel costs to the trip, said Sri Paravaikkarasu, director of Asian oil at FGE.
The blockade is weighing on the already weak Asian diesel or diesel market. More than 60% of Asian exports to the west flowed through the blocked Canal in 2020, according to the FGE.
Aframax and Suezmax rates in the Mediterranean have also reacted as the market starts to price on fewer ships available in the region, said broker Braemar ACM Shipbroking.
At least four Long-Range 2 tankers that could have headed towards Suez from the Atlantic basin should now be evaluating a passage around the Cape of Good Hope, said Braemar ACM. Each LR-2 tanker can carry around 75,000 tons of oil.
The cost of shipping clean products, such as gasoline and diesel, from the Russian port of Tuapse, on the Black Sea, in southern France, jumped 73% in three days, to $ 2.58 a barrel on March 25, according to data from Refinitiv Eikon.
On the oil side, traders have had to pay 10-20% more for replacement tankers, but market freight rates have not yet risen, as charterers are not ready to commit to higher levels should the container is released this weekend, ship brokers said.
With Reuters