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Dislodging the stuck ship in the Suez Canal could take days or even weeks, experts said, as a growing backlog of ships accumulated in the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, awaiting passage.
On Friday morning, the giant vessel Ever Given remained stranded in the same position, with tugs and dredges still working to free it, according to Canal’s service provider Leth Agencies.
A team from Boskalis, a Dutch rescue company, started working with the canal authority on Thursday. Rescue efforts focused on dredging to remove sand and mud from the port side of the bow of the vessel.
Here are the latest updates:
Downtime could ‘certainly last for at least two weeks’
Speaking to Bloomberg, Randy Giveans, senior vice president of Equity Research for Energy Maritime at Jefferies LLC, said that if cargo needed to be offloaded or if major repairs needed to be made on the canal itself, “the weather shutdown could certainly last at least two weeks ”.
Peter Berdowski, managing director of Boskalis Westminster, the rescue team’s parent company, said on Wednesday: “I can’t rule out that it could go on for weeks if the ship is really stranded”.
The process would take that long if “you have to get rid of the cargo and you have to dredge as well,” he said in an interview with the Nieuwsuur TV show in the Netherlands.
Oil prices regain ground on fears the Suez lockdown could last for weeks
Oil prices reversed a steep sell-off the day before to rise 1% on Friday over growing fears that it would take weeks to dislodge the ship, which would cut supplies of crude and refined products.
Prices, however, were still heading for a third consecutive weekly loss as the demand outlook is affected by further coronavirus lockdowns in Europe.
Brent was up 54 cents, or 0.9%, at $ 62.49 a barrel at 4:32 a.m. GMT, after falling 3.8% on Thursday.
Tugs and dredges are still working to free the ship
The ship’s bow remains stuck in the east wall of the canal, while its stern appears to be lodged against the west wall – an extraordinary event experts say they have never heard of before in the canal’s 150-year history.
The Suez Canal Authority, which operates the waterway, deployed several tugs to attempt to refloat the enormous vessel, including a specialized suction hopper dredger capable of moving 2,000 cubic meters of material every hour.
As of Friday morning, the vessel was left stranded in the same position, with tugs and dredges still working to free it, according to Canal’s service provider Leth Agencies. He recalled unclear when the route would reopen.
The Dutch to the rescue
A team from Boskalis, a Dutch rescue company, started working with the canal authority on Thursday. Rescue efforts focused on dredging to remove sand and mud from the port side of the bow of the vessel.
The Canal Authority said it would need to remove between 15,000 and 20,000 cubic meters (530,000 to 706,000 cubic feet) of sand to reach a depth of 12 to 16 meters (39 to 52 feet).
This depth is likely to allow the ship to float freely again, he said.
UPDATE: Help on the way to #EVERGIVEN.
Dredging and heavy haulage experts Boskalis have a team heading for the “very heavy whale on the beach” * and expect to arrive Thursday morning.
CEO: It could take days or even weeks.
*Google Translate…
History: https://t.co/abtFUK7mEY pic.twitter.com/1T6cwiiLr5– John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) March 25, 2021
Headaches for worldwide shipping
The blockage is a source of headaches for world trade. About 10 percent of world trade passes through the canal, which is particularly crucial for the transportation of oil.
The shutdown could also affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East.
At least 150 ships were awaiting clearance for the Ever Given, including ships near Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea, Port Suez on the Red Sea and those already stranded in the canal system of Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, a said Leth Agencies.
Here are five things to know about the Suez Canal dead end.
An even larger order book for shippers
Using data from the automatic identification system’s trackers on vessels at sea, data company Refinitiv shared analysis with the Associated Press news agency showing that more than 300 vessels remained en route to the waterway at sea. during the next two weeks.
Some ships could still change course, but the crash of ships listing the Suez Canal as a destination shows an even larger backlog looming for shippers already under pressure amid the coronavirus pandemic.
How much does the Big Ship cost in the world? The cost of transporting a container from China to Europe has climbed to $ 8,000, nearly quadruple the rate from a year ago. https://t.co/jMoenxUdqX
– Gregg Carlstrom (@glcarlstrom) March 26, 2021
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