The shocking satellite photos showing the MV Ever Given freighter crossing the Suez Canal

A giant container ship has run aground in the Suez Canal due to a gust of wind, the shipping company that operates it said on Wednesday.and maritime traffic stopped on one of the busiest trade routes in the world. Satellite photos provided by the press agency The Associated Press they clearly show how trade in this area is being blocked by the incident recorded at this key location.

Traffic on the dividing narrow waterway Africa continental Sinai Peninsula arrested Tuesday after MV never given, a container ship flying the flag of Panama with an owner registered in Japan, it will remain blocked. “The container ship accidentally ran aground, possibly after being hit by a gust of wind», He told the AFP the company Evergreen Marine Corp.

The company is in contact “with stakeholders, including the Authority managing the canal, to assist the vessel as soon as possible“, He said. According to the agency Bloomberg, after the incident, more than 100 ships are waiting to cross the Suez Canal.

An Egyptian official who spoke to the PA on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to report to the press also attributed the incident to high winds in the region. The region suffered gales and a sandstorm on Tuesday, with winds of up to 50 kilometers per hour, according to Egyptian meteorologists.

“There was a grounding incident,” he said Bloomberg Alok Roy, Director of BSM Hong Kong, which administers the “Never given“. This fact temporarily puts part of world trade in difficulty, as it is one of the main trade routes that connects Europe to Asia., and that it prevents ships from encircling the African continent.

The channel is 190 kilometers long, 24 meters deep and 205 meters wide. For its part, the ship, 400 meters long, 59 meters wide and capable of carrying up to 20,000 containers, was destined for Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It is still unclear exactly what prompted Ever Given to turn sideways on the chain. GAC, a global transportation and logistics company, said that Never given suffered “A power failure while traveling north», Without giving more details.

The Suez Canal

The Suez Canal, blocked this Wednesday by a stranded container ship, has continued to expand and modernize since its inauguration in 1869, and has accompanied the development of maritime trade to the point that it now accommodates giant ships until to 240,000 tons.

In 1869, the canal connecting the Gulf of Suez and the Mediterranean he was far from his current size.

With a length of 164 kilometers, reaches a depth of 8 meters to allow the passage of ships up to 5,000 tons and 22 feet of draft (6.7 meters), which at the time made up the majority of the world fleet, according to data from the canal management company. During its first century of existence its dimensions changed little, although a reform in 1887 allowed night navigation.

In the 1950s, the canal, under the pressure of the big shipowners, gradually widened, deepened and lengthened.

At the time of its nationalization by the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1956, the canal measured 175 km, 14 meters deep and could accommodate ships up to 30,000 tons and 35 feet draft (10.7 meters). In parallel with the evolution of the world fleet, the dimensions of the canal would continue to increase until reaching, in 2015, 193.30 km in length and 24 meters in depth.

The canal is now used by ships up to 240,000 tons and a draft of 66 feet (20.1 meters). Every day, an average of fifty ships cross the canal compared to three in 1869. A new enlargement of the canal, inaugurated in 2015, should double traffic to around 100 ships per day by 2023.

(With information from AP and Reuters) .-

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