Suez Canal suspends traffic amid efforts to dislodge ship

ISMAILIA (Egypt) • The Suez Canal temporarily suspended traffic yesterday as efforts to dislodge a 400m-long container vessel that has blocked the waterway continued for a third day, with eight tugs working to straighten the ship.

The Ever Given vessel, almost as long as the Empire State Building is high, ran aground diagonally across the single-lane stretch of the southern canal on Tuesday morning after losing the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm.

It is now blocking transit in both directions through one of the world's busiest shipping channels for goods, oil, grain and other products linking Asia and Europe.

Eight tugs have been trying to push and pull the Ever Given free of the canal's banks, the Suez Canal Authority said in a statement.

Thirteen vessels that sailed south from Port Said on Wednesday had dropped anchor in the Bitter Lakes waiting area until navigation could be resumed, it added.

Mr Peter Berdowski, chief executive of Dutch company Boskalis, which is trying to free the ship, said it was too early to say how long the job might take. "We can't exclude it might take weeks, depending on the situation," he told Dutch media.

He said the ship's bow and stern had been lifted up against either side of the canal.

"It is like an enormous beached whale...We might have to work with a combination of reducing the weight by removing containers, oil and water from the ship, tug boats and dredging of sand," he said.

Several dozen vessels, including large container ships, tankers carrying oil and gas, and bulk vessels hauling grain, have backed up at either end of the canal to create one of the worst shipping jams seen for years.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the technical manager of Ever Given, said dredgers were working to clear sand and mud from around the blocked vessel, while tugboats work to shift it in conjunction with the ship's winches.

The struggle to dislodge it is now in the hands of SMIT Salvage, a legendary Dutch firm whose employees parachute themselves from one ship wreckage to the next, often saving vessels during violent storms.

The company is known for some of the most daring naval salvages, including lifting a sunken Russian nuclear submarine in 2001.

SMIT, a unit of Royal Boskalis Westminster NV, will have to work out exactly how entrenched in the wall the ship is, said Boskalis spokesman Martijn Schuttevaer.

"It will be critical to inspect the vessel and how deeply it is lodged in the embankment," he said.

"The question is how solidly she has been grounded."

The salvors might have to find a way to lighten the vessel's enormous weight to pull it to a less obstructive position.

The process of making the ship lighter means removing things like the ballast water, which helps keep ships steady when they are at sea. Fuel may have to be unloaded too.

In a worst-case scenario, some of the carrier's containers - usually filled with everything from furniture to televisions - may have to be taken off.

This process might involve flying in helicopters to remove the crates one by one.

SMIT was due to fly an eight-person team yesterday to board and inspect the vessel and the grounding.

A big part of the initial under-water assessment is how much the banks slope at that point in the canal.

Japan's Nippon Salvage has also been hired to assist in the refloating, according to a source.

Crews are also hoping that periods of higher tide over the next few days will help.

Marine services firm Gulf Agency Company issued a note to clients saying that wind conditions and the sheer size of the vessel "were hindering the operation" to free the vessel. Japanese ship-owner Shoei Kisen also apologised for the incident.

The ship's GPS signal shows only minor changes to its position over the past 24 hours.

Roughly 30 per cent of the world's shipping container volume transits through the 193km Suez Canal daily, and about 12 per cent of total global trade of all goods.

Shipping experts say that if the blockage is unlikely to be cleared within the next 24 to 48 hours, some shipping firms may be forced to reroute vessels around the southern tip of Africa, which would add roughly a week to the journey.

Consultancy Wood Mackenzie said the biggest impact was on container shipping, but there were also a total of 16 laden crude and product oil tankers delayed by the incident.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG