Stuck Suez Canal megaship refloated: What we know so far

Cairo - Nearly a week later, tug boats helped turn the stern 80 per cent in the right direction

A giant container ship, almost as long as New York’s Empire State Building is high, became wedged during a sandstorm last Tuesday in Egypt’s Suez Canal.

Within days, it causes a traffic jam of over 300 cargo ships at the two ends of the crucial global shipping lane.

On Monday, nearly a week later, tug boats helped turn the stern 80 per cent in the right direction, canal authorities say, but the vessel is not yet afloat.

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KT graphic by Raja Choudhury

Here is what we know so far:

What happened?

The 400-metre (1,300-foot) long, 200,000-tonne MV Ever Given, categorised as a “megaship”, veers off course in the canal when a gale-force duststorm hits Egypt’s Sinai Desert and much of the Middle East.

The 59-metre (195-foot) wide Panama-flagged vessel becomes stuck at about 0540 GMT near the southern end of the canal and diagonally blocks the man-made waterway between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

The ship’s operator, Evergreen Marine Corp of Taiwan, says the vessel — en route from Yantian, China to the Dutch port of Rotterdam — “ran aground after a suspected gust of wind hit it”.

But the head of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Osama Rabie, tells reporters Saturday the accident may have been due to “technical or human errors”, rather than 40-knot winds.

The 25 crew are unhurt, the hull and cargo undamaged, and there is no oil leak, say Singapore-based Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), which provides management services for the megaship.

What's the impact?

The vessel blocks the shipping artery through which more than 10 percent of global maritime trade passes, much of it oil and grain.

The Suez Canal, opened in 1869 and widened since, is a crucial shortcut between Asia and Europe that saves ships from having to navigate around Africa.

As a result of the accident, more than 300 vessels are treading water at either end of the canal, says Rabie.

Old sections of the canal are reopened to ease the congestion — but this doesn’t solve the fundamental problem, as there is only one lane on the southern end where the ship is stuck.

The blockage of the global trade chokepoint hits world oil markets, as traders anticipate delays in deliveries.

Crude futures surge six percent on Wednesday, but prices tumble Thursday due to nagging pandemic concerns and inflation fears, wiping out those gains.