generalspeaking: Mission Accomplished Freeing Suez Canal

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Mission Accomplished Freeing Suez Canal

"We have until now redirected 15 vessels where we deemed the delay of sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa equal to the current delay of sailing to Suez and queuing."
Danish shipping giant Maersk (March 28)

"This is a big ship and a big problem, but it is not like we have not seen this coming."
Lloyd's List editor Richard Meade

"We pulled it off!"
"I am excited to announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given, thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again."
Peter Berdowski, CEO, Boskalis salvage firm

The situation on the Suez Canal strained supply chains and forced some ships to take a longer route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip. (Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)

"We've gone to this fragile, just-in-time shipping that we saw absolutely break down in the beginning of COVID."
"We used to have big, fat warehouses in all the countries where the factories pulled supplies — Now these floating ships are the warehouse."
Capt. John Konrad, founder and CEO, shipping news website gcaptain.com

"Aside from the delays directly caused by the closure, there is inevitable bunching of vessels that occurs as they call at their next ports and as we work through these clashes, we will feel the ripple effects of this closure for some weeks to come."
Ahmed Bashir, Maersk’s head of Global Execution Centres (March 29)

Egypt's Lt.Gen.Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority was prepared to unload the 18,000 containers from the massive container ship Ever Given, boxed into the Suez Canal for almost a week. Authorization came from Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi to procure specialized unloading devices, equipment not already in the Authority's inventory. That equipment was to be acquired at the very time that dredging continued in an effort to free the ship blocking transit through the Canal.

"His excellency has ordered that we should not wait for the failure of the first and second scenarios to start thinking about implementing the third one", Lt.Gen.Rabie said, referring to unloading the gigantic ship. But then, the intersection of a full moon and high tide along with the aid of more powerful tugs managed to free the 200,000-ton ship from the trap it was in lodged firmly into the eastern bank of the canal, one that was racking up billions of dollars in global trade each day the canal remained blocked. \

Map showing alternative route for shipping while Suez Canal blocked

Shipping giant Maersk was preparing to reroute more vessels following further analysis and the failure of flotation efforts. And then two larger and heavier tug boats, the Netherlands-registered ALP Guard and the Italian-registered Carlo Magno arrived on Sunday. Rumours of a U.S. Navy team of dredging experts expected to arrive for an inspection was never verified. "Significant progress" according to Bernhard Schulte Shipmenagement overseeing the ship's crew and maintenance was made on Saturday.

However, despite 11 tugs pulling and a rising tide, by midnight it was obvious that more dredging to remove thousands of tons of sediment around the port side of the vessel's bow would have to proceed. Industry experts weighed the thought that the wedged ship leading to the canal's plight was preventable. Warnings had been issued for years of a mismatch between ever-growing vessels using a waterway that risk assessments claimed would have to be enlarged, wider and deeper to accommodate the goliaths passing through.

Shipping companies now face higher insurance costs, with only one in every ten ships waiting for the stranded Ever Given to move, having adequate insurance to cover mounting disruption costs. Concerns over the financial effect of the standstill highlight that businesses would be affected in a myriad of instances. Those floating warehouses are paying the "just-in-time" cost of relieving giant corporations and manufacturers of maintaining warehouses.

Once the freed Ever Given makes anchor in the Great Bitter Lake, the 422 ships awaiting transit will be enabled to gradually clear the backlog to restart their journeys. "As soon as the ship reaches the waiting place in the Bitter Lakes…the 43 ships waiting in the Bitter Lakes will begin to move south towards the Gulf of Suez", explained a Canal authority of the ships traveling in convoys north- and southbound of the Suez Canal while the Ever Given stands by for inspection.

Under normal circumstances it takes ten to twelve hours to cross the canal. The channel, which is planned to remain in operation for 24 hours will see two convoys daily successfully pass through. Before the blockage an average of between 80 to 90 ships would pass through the canal. Now that over 400 vessels carrying billions of dollars in freight, are waiting to clear the passage the Authority is committed to work 24 hours to facilitate their passage.