SUEZ, Egypt (AP) – Two additional tugs flew to Egypt’s Suez Canal on Sunday to help free a skyscraper-sized container ship that has been trapped across the crucial waterway for days, even as large skippers increasingly divert their boats from fear that the ship could sail even longer to free.
The massive Ever Given, a Panamanian-flagged Japanese vessel that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, got stuck in a one-lane stretch of the canal on Tuesday. Since then, authorities have been unable to remove the ship and traffic through the canal – valued at more than $ 9 billion a day – has been shut down, further disrupting a global shipping network already under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Dutch-flagged Alp Guard and the Italian-flagged Carlo Magno, called in to help the tugs already there, reached the Red Sea near the city of Suez early Sunday, satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed. The tugs will push the 400-meter (quarter-mile) Ever Given while dredgers continue to suck up sand from beneath the ship and mud caked on the port side, said Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, who manages the Ever Given.
Workers planned to make two attempts to free the ship at high tide on Sunday, a top pilot from the canal authority said.
“Sunday is very critical,” said the pilot. “It will determine the next step, which will most likely involve at least partial unloading of the ship.”
Removing containers from the ship would likely take more days to close the canal, something the authorities have been desperate to avoid. It would also require a crane and other equipment yet to arrive.
The pilot spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to brief journalists.
On Saturday, the head of the Suez Canal Authority told reporters that high winds were “not the only cause” of the Ever Given run aground, which seemed to counter conflicting reviews from others. Lieutenant General Osama Rabei said an investigation was underway, but human or technical errors were not ruled out.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement states that their “initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as the cause of the grounding”. However, at least one initial report suggested that the colossal ship with about 20,000 containers was “blacked out” at the time of the incident.
Rabei said he remained hopeful that dredging could free the ship without having to resort to removing the cargo, but added that “we are in a difficult situation, it’s a bad incident.”
Asked when they expected to free the ship and reopen the canal, he said, “I can’t say because I don’t know.”
Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., the company that owns the vessel, said it is considering disposing of containers if other drivers fail.
The Ever Given is wedged about 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) north of the entrance to the Red Sea near the city of Suez.
A prolonged closure of the critical waterway would cause delays in the global transport chain. According to official figures, about 19,000 ships passed through the canal last year. About 10% of world trade flows through the canal. The shutdown could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East. Syria has already started rationing the distribution of fuel in the war-torn country amid concerns about delays to shipments arriving amid the blockade.
Since early Sunday, more than 320 ships have been waiting to travel through the Suez, either to the Mediterranean or the Red Sea, according to channel services company Leth Agencies. Dozens of others still referred to their destination as the Canal, although skippers seem to increasingly avoid the passage.
The largest shipping company in the world, AP Moller-Maersk of Denmark, warned its customers that it would take three to six days to clear the backlog of ships on the canal. The company and its partners already have 22 ships ready there.
“The current number (of) diverted Maersk and partner ships is 14 and is expected to increase as we assess the salvage efforts, along with the network capacity and fuel on our ships currently bound for Suez,” the shipper said.
Mediterranean Shipping Co., the world’s second largest, said it had already diverted at least 11 ships around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the canal. It turned back two other ships and said it “expected some missed sailings as a result of this incident.”
“MSC expects this incident to have a very significant impact on the movement of containerized goods and disrupt supply chains beyond the existing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.
Gambrell reported from Dubai, UAE.