Suez Canal Live Updates: As Blocked Ships Back Up, Hopes Turn to Tide and Time
A new tugboat has joined the ranks of those struggling to free the giant cargo ship blocking the crucial Suez Canal maritime route. But many challenges remain.
Here’s what you need to know:
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As the full moon brings rising tides, crews race to free the Ever Given.
The container ship remained lodged across the Suez Canal on Sunday.
The container ship remained lodged across the Suez Canal on Sunday.Credit…Mahmoud Khaled/Getty Images
With the costs of the closure of one of the world’s most vital maritime arteries growing by the day, salvage teams hoped on Sunday to take advantage of the full moon and swelling tides to dislodge the giant cargo ship stuck in the Suez Canal.
Late Saturday, tugboat drivers sounded their horns in celebration of the most visible sign of progress since the ship ran aground late Tuesday:
The 220,000-ton Ever Given had moved.
Granted, it did not go far — just two degrees, or about 100 feet, according to shipping officials. But that came on top of progress in the days before, when canal officials said dredgers had managed to dig out the rear of the ship, freeing its rudder.
By Saturday afternoon, they had dredged 18 meters down into the canal’s eastern bank. But officials cautioned that the ship’s bow remained firmly planted in the soil and that the operation still faced significant hurdles.
The company that oversees the ship’s operations and crew, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, said a dozen tugboats were helping, the latest a specialist tug registered in the Netherlands, the ALP Guard, arrived on the scene on Sunday.
“Further attempts to refloat the vessel will continue this evening once the tug is safely in position along with the 11 tugs already on site,” the company said.
Several dredgers, including a specialized suction dredger that can extract 2,000 cubic meters of material per hour, were digging around the vessel’s bow, the company said.
Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, said that water had started running underneath the vessel. “We expect that at any time the ship could slide and move from the spot it is in,” he told a news conference on Saturday.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Port Said
EGYPT
Suez Canal
Sinai Peninsula
EGYPT
SUEZ
GULF
25 MILES
Source: Satellite image by CNES, via Airbus
By Scott Reinhard
Salvagers are determined to free the vessel this weekend, but their best chance may be on Monday, when a spring tide will raise the canal’s water level as much as 18 inches, analysts and shipping agents said.
It is a delicate mission. Salvage crews are trying to move the ship without unbalancing it or breaking it apart.
With the ship sagging in the middle, its bow and stern both caught in positions for which they were not designed, the hull is vulnerable to stress and cracks, according to experts. Just as every high tide brings hope the ship can be released, each low tide puts new stresses on the vessel.
Teams of divers have been inspecting the hull throughout the operation and have found no damage, officials said.
The ship’s manager said that in addition to the tugboats and dredgers, high-capacity pumps will draw water from the vessel’s ballast tanks to lighten the ship.
But with each passing day, the situation is bringing global supply chains closer to a full-blown crisis.
Vessels packed with the world’s goods — including cars, oil, livestock and laptops — usually flow through the waterway with ease, supplying much of the globe as they traverse the quickest path from Asia and the Middle East to Europe and the East Coast of the United States.
Some ships have already decided not to wait, U-turning to take the long way around the southern tip of Africa, a voyage that could add weeks to the journey and mean more than $26,000 a day in fuel costs.
If the Ever Given breaks free by Monday, the shipping industry can absorb the inconvenience, analysts said, but beyond that, supply chains and consumers could start to see major disruptions.
— Vivian Yee and Marc Santora The New York Times