SUEZ, Egypt (AP) – A giant container ship remained stuck laterally in Egypt’s Suez Canal for the fifth day of Saturday, as authorities prepared to make further attempts to free the ship and reopen a crucial east-west waterway for global transportation.
The Ever Dado, a Panama-flagged ship that transports cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday in the narrow channel that runs between Africa and the Sinai Peninsula.
The huge ship was stuck on a single-lane stretch of the canal, about six kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, Ever Given’s technical manager, said an attempt to free him failed on Friday. Plans are underway to pump water from the vessel’s internal spaces, and two more tugboats are expected to arrive on Sunday to join others who are already trying to move the huge ship, the agency said.
An official at the Suez Canal Authority said they plan to make at least two attempts on Saturday to free the ship when the tide goes out. He said that the weather depends on the tide.
The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to inform journalists.
Egyptian authorities have banned media access to the site. The channel official said his boss, Lieutenant General Osama Rabei, would give a news conference on Saturday in the city of Suez, just a few kilometers from the ship’s location.
Shoei Kisen President Yukito Higaki said at a news conference at the company’s headquarters in Imabari, western Japan, that 10 tugs were deployed and workers were dredging the banks and the seabed near the bow of the ship to try and place it. it afloat again when the high tide starts to rise.
Shoei Kisen said in a statement on Saturday that the company is considering removing containers to make the ship lighter if the refotting efforts fail, but that it would be a difficult operation.
The White House said it had offered to help Egypt reopen the canal. “We have equipment and capacity that most countries do not and we are seeing what we can do and what help we can be,” President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday.
An initial investigation showed that the ship ran aground due to strong winds and ruled out mechanical or engine failure, the company and channel officials said. GAC, a global transportation and logistics company, had previously said the ship had experienced a power blackout, but gave no further details.
Maritime congestion grew to about 280 ships on Saturday outside the Suez Canal, according to channel service provider Leth Agencies.
Some vessels began to change course and dozens of ships were still en route to the waterway, according to data company Refinitiv.
A prolonged closure of the crucial waterway would cause delays in the global shipping chain. About 19,000 ships passed through the canal last year, according to official data. About 10% of world trade flows through the channel, which is particularly important for the transportation of oil. The closure could affect oil and gas shipments from the Middle East to Europe.
It was not clear how long the blockade would last. Even after reopening the channel linking factories in Asia to consumers in Europe, waiting containers are likely to reach busy ports, forcing them to face additional delays before unloading.
Apparently predicting long delays, the owners of the stuck ship diverted a sister ship, Ever Greet, on a course around Africa, according to satellite data.
Others are also being led astray. The liquid natural gas carrier Pan Americas changed course in the middle of the Atlantic, now aiming south to bypass the southern tip of Africa, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com.