Ever Given, a container ship almost as long as the Empire State Building is tall, ran aground on the Egyptian channel on Tuesday after being caught by 40-knot winds and a sandstorm.
Tugs are now expected to be able to use the winds and tides on Saturday to displace the 224,000-ton vessel, the head of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Osama Rabie, told Egyptian newscast Youm7.
The ship’s towing and towing maneuvers began on Friday night, with nine tugboats pulling the front of the giant container carrier after the dredging work was completed, Rabie said.
He added that towing maneuvers require the availability of several factors, including winds and tides.
More than 260 ships await transit on the blocked waterway – including 13 transporting livestock – and the total number is expected to increase as the crisis continues, marine monitoring website Marine Traffic told CNN.
If the last attempt to reflotate the ship fails, the ship – which is 400 meters (1,312 feet) long and 59 meters (193 feet) wide – can still be released “early next week,” according to plans drawn by the head of a Dutch rescue company.
Peter Berdowski of Boskalis, a sister company of Dutch company SMIT Salvage, told Dutch TV news “Nieuwsuur” that his Plan A is to try to pull the ship out without removing the containers from the deck.
“There are two heavy tugs on the way,” he said Friday night. “Together, they have a pulling force of around 400 tonnes. So these are really big guys. They arrive this weekend.”
More importantly, he said, a more thorough investigation showed that the ship’s stern “is not fully pushed into the clay.” This would allow tugs to take advantage of the lever force by pulling the stern, he said.
He said the hope is that his tractive force – combined with dredging work in progress, a 40 to 50 cm high tide next week, and the ship’s stern “leverage” being relatively free – will be sufficient “to release the ship early next week.”
If that fails, Berdowski also outlined a plan B.
“At the same time, we are already mobilizing a crane,” he said. “This will also be delivered this weekend, which will allow us to remove the containers from the front of the ship.”
He said that this would potentially involve the removal of up to 600 containers, to lighten the load on the bow of the ship and, therefore, on the bank of the channel.
“Removing from the ship is one thing, but you also have to get rid of those 600 containers somewhere,” he said. “Directly next to the ship is just deserted. Therefore, removing these containers also becomes a puzzle.”
This could mean a few more days. “But the most important thing is that we are, in principle, aligning everything so that, in a logical sequence, we can take the necessary steps,” said Berdowski.
Fears for cattle
In the meantime, billions of dollars in vital cargo and sensitive products are accumulating on ships whose path is blocked, including ships that transport livestock to different countries in Europe and Asia.
The director of Animals International in the EU, Gabriel Paun, warned that thousands of animals transported on 13 ships – mostly Romanians – are at risk of dying if the situation is not resolved in the next few days.
More ships carrying cattle are approaching the Suez Canal, Paun said.
“We will be seated in the face of a great tragedy if the channel is not released within the next 24 hours because there are vessels that will be left without [livestock] food and water in the next two days, “said Paun.
Some ships have food and water for another six days and “if they decide today to return to Romania, then they have a chance – but if the blockade lasts between two and six more days, we will have a disaster,” added Paun.
A cattle ship, the Nabolsi, has been sailing for 21 days after leaving Colombia on March 6, and is now awaiting passage through the blocked channel with animals on board, said Marine Traffic spokesman Georgios Hatzimanolis.
More than 18,800 ships with a net tonnage of 1.17 billion tonnes passed through the channel in 2020. That is an average of 51.5 ships per day.
Redirection of ships
At least 10 ships, including oil tankers and LNG and container ships, were redirected away from the channel on Friday, according to Marine Traffic and data intelligence company Kpler.
“There are now several ships … going around [the route from the Mediterranean into the canal] and now we’re heading south … it’s the right time to make that decision, “said Lars Jensen, head of Sea Intelligence Consulting, a consultancy for the shipping industry.
“So for now, it will look like the ships that are waiting in line [in the canal], would simply cross [their] fingers and hope that this will be resolved “, he added.
The Indian government said on Friday that it advised its shipping companies to explore the option of redirecting ships across the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, while the situation on the channel is resolved, according to a statement from the Ministry of Commerce. and Industry in India. .
He noted that this redirection usually takes an additional 15 days.
This Suez Canal route is used by Indian exporters and importers for a $ 200 billion trade with North America, South America and Europe, the statement said. The ministry added that it will identify and prioritize perishable cargo for handling.
Even before Semper Dado ran aground, global supply chains were being stretched to the limit, making it much more expensive to transport goods around the world and leading to a shortage of some products. The prolonged closure of the main route between Asia, Europe and North America would only make things worse.
Discussing the issue of possible damage claims, Toshiaki Fujiwara, senior managing director of Shoei Kisen KK, said on Friday that “the company has not received any claims at this time”, adding that “it may be necessary to [to] two or several years to get to those details. “
Evergreen Marine, the Taiwanese company that operates the ship, said Shoei Kisen KK was responsible for the accident, Fujiwara confirmed.
Magdy Samaan reported from Cairo, Mostafa Salem from Abu Dhabi and Mick Krever from London, while Laura Smith-Spark wrote in London. CNN’s Jessie Yeung, Sugam Pokharel, Tim Lister and Pamela Boykoff contributed to this report.