They successfully unlocked the Ever Given merchant ship in the Suez Canal

The gigantic merchant ship Ever Given has been partially freed from the shores of the Suez Canal, which increases the chances that the important waterway will be reopened after being blocked for almost a week.

This was confirmed by marine service provider Inchcape Shipping, who said the vessel was refloated at 4.30am local time and the vessel “is insured”.

The head of the Suez Canal Authority, Admiral Osama Rabi, announced at dawn on Monday that work to attempt to unload the ship had resumed with the help of 10 giant tugs that operated in four different directionss.

“We are not finished yet, but it has moved,” he said.

Although having succeeded in unloading the ship, For the moment, the date of resumption of maritime traffic has not been announced..

The 400-meter-long container ship “Ever Given” which has been crossing the Suez Canal for nearly a week has “turned” but still does not float, a spokesperson for Shoei Kisen told AFP on Monday. , the Japanese company. The boat.

The ship ran aground on Tuesday and has since caused an unprecedented traffic jam on one of the world’s busiest trade routes, causing the hijacking of more than 200 ships and paralysis of $ 9.5 billion worth of cargo. euros per day.

For its part, Bloomberg quoted several experts who claimed that the Ever Given in the Suez Canal had been released. Vessel tracking websites confirmed what was said by showing that the container ship had left her position.

Satellite information showed the vessel had straightened up, with the bow pointing away from the east shore.

This Sunday, the Egyptian authorities carried out unsuccessful operations to try to refloat the 400-meter-long container ship, to finally succeed on Monday morning.

Sunday evening the maritime services company Leth Agencies assured in a tweet that the operation had been postponed “until the power of the tugs is sufficient”.

The Dutch tug Alp Guard arrived at the scene in the early hours of the night and the Italian Carlo Magna “will arrive Monday morning”, according to Leth Agencies, which reports that the next unloading attempt will take place “Monday evening”. “..

For its part, The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) did not announce any postponement, limiting itself to saying in a statement at the end of the day that “operations around the bow of the ship had intensified”..

According to SCA spokesperson George Safwat, some 27,000 cubic meters of sand have already been removed, to a depth of 18 meters.

But authorities acknowledged that there were difficulties due to the rocky nature of the bottom.

According to Ihab Talaat el Bannane, a former Egyptian admiral, “the accident occurred in the part of the canal where the ground is rocky making it more difficult to excavate“.

The ship was surrounded on Sunday by tugs, according to a journalist from the AFP on the spot. Its silhouette, about 60 meters high, dominated the fields and palm trees of the west bank.

The area was heavily guarded by canal security personnel but also by the army and police.

According to the official Egyptian press, President Abdel Fatah al Sisi ordered “preparations” to lighten the load on the ship.

During, 369 ships are stranded at both ends of the canal that connects the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Images from an AFP journalist show dozens of ships anchored in the Gulf of Suez.

According to a report by insurance company Allianz released on Friday, each day of inactivity could cost global trade between $ 6 billion and $ 10 billion.

The total value of goods blocked or having to take an alternative route differs according to estimates: by $ 3 billion per day according to Jonathan Owens, a logistics expert at the British University of Salford, up to $ 9.6 billion according to Lloyd’s List, a British maritime magazine.

The canal authorities, for their part, have stressed that Egypt loses between 12 and 14 million dollars per day of closure. Nearly 19,000 ships used the canal in 2020, according to the SCA.

While waiting for the resumption of traffic, large shipping companies such as Maersk or the French CMA CGM have decided to hijack their ships and go around the Cape of Good Hope, a diversion of 9,000 kilometers. and at least seven additional days of navigation.

Although the incident was initially attributed to high winds combined with a sandstorm, Rabie said on Saturday that possible “human error” was one of the reasons for the incident.

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