Ever Given, the containership that blocked the Suez Canal since March 23, has finally been pulled clear of the bank side. Evergreen Marine officials stated that the ship was “suspected of being hit by a sudden strong wind, causing the hull to deviate… and accidentally hit the bottom and run aground”.
Since the vessel ran aground, tug boats and dredgers have been hard at work trying to refloat the ship. Subsequently, the ship has been pulled clear.
The ship is now in mid-channel, according to AIS data from Lloyd’s List Intelligence, and the backlog of vessels at the Suez Canal is expected to be cleared within the next few days. This is good news for an already-strained global supply chain, considering that over $9 billion worth of goods are moved through the 120-mile canal every day – around $400 million per hour – according to Lloyd’s.
Leth Agencies estimated over 350 vessels over 10,000 dwt trading internationally were waiting on both sides of the canal.
180 Bulk carriers
24 Crude Tankers
98 Containerships
29 LPG or LNG carriers
17 Product tankers
11 Vehicle carriers
13 Other
The cascading impact of the weeklong closure of the Suez Canal is not going to be small, given that we’re talking about a sizable global value of merchandise trade ($18 trillion). The resultant bottleneck of cargo vessels means that the delays that can be expected are not going to be weeks but months.
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