DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A massive freighter turned sideways in Egypt’s Suez Canal, blocking traffic on a crucial East-West waterway for global shipping, according to satellite data accessed Wednesday.
Traffic on the narrow waterway separating continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula stopped Tuesday after the MV Ever Given, a Panama-flagged container ship with a Japan-listed owner, got stuck.
It was not immediately clear what caused the Ever Given to turn sideways in the canal. GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, described the Ever Given as “a blackout while traveling north,” without elaborating. Others blamed the high winds for the turning of the ship.
According to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com, the Ever Given’s bow touched the east wall of the canal, while the stern appeared to be against the west wall. Several tugs surrounded the ship, probably trying to push it in the right direction, the data showed.
An image posted to Instagram by a user on another waiting freighter turned out to show the once data sandwiched across the channel.
The channel authorities were not immediately available on Wednesday. The ship appeared to be trapped about 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) north of the southern mouth of the canal near the city of Suez.
Cargo ships and oil tankers appeared to be lining up on the south side of the Suez Canal, waiting to sail through the waterway to the Mediterranean, according to MarineTraffic data.
A United Nations database listed the Ever Given as owned by Shoei Kisen KK, a ship leasing company based in Imabari, Japan. The firm was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday. The ship had specified Rotterdam in the Netherlands as its destination before it got stuck in the canal.
Evergreen Marine Corp., a major Taiwan-based shipping company, has also listed the Ever Given among the ships in its fleet, and the vessel bears its color scheme and logo.
Evergreen could not be immediately reached for comment, although the state-run Central News Agency of Taiwan quoted unidentified company sources as saying the ship was ambushed by high winds as it entered the Suez Canal from the Red Sea, but no of the containers had sunk.
Built in 2018 with a length of nearly 400 meters (a quarter of a mile) and a beam of 59 meters (193 feet), the Ever Given is one of the largest cargo ships in the world.
Opened in 1869, the Suez Canal is a vital link for oil, natural gas and freight transported from east to west. About 10% of world trade flows through waterways and it remains one of the largest foreign exchange earners in Egypt. In 2015, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s government completed a major expansion of the canal, allowing it to accommodate the largest ships in the world.
Associated Press writer Taijing Wu in Taipei, Taiwan contributed to this report.
Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP.