A new attempt to refloat the Ever Given container ship and thus unblock the Suez Canal has failed this morning, when the full moon and high tide were expected to promote the success of the operation, reported today one of the companies that operate in this sea passage.
“Unfortunately, the state of the tide has not helped Ever Given to re-float tonight,” said Leth Agencies, a company specializing in logistics services in different channels and straits of the world, through its Twitter account. The company added that the Suez Canal Authority, which manages this Egyptian sea lane, will again try to unload the ship this Sunday with the help of tugboats and put the number of vessels waiting to cross the route at 326.
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Some of the participants in the rescue operation had expressed their confidence on Saturday that last night was a “good time” to move the Ever Given, which has blocked the canal since Tuesday morning after having run aground on one of the bows. shores being crossed in the pass. Since then, attempts to re-float it have been unsuccessful despite the use of up to 14 tugs and dredgers and excavators to remove the sand around the bow of the Ever Given, which was traversed in the channel due, according to the first investigations, to strong winds and a sandstorm.
The captain of one of the tugboats involved said on Saturday that they had managed to move the bow of the ship about 17 meters to the north, towards where it was sailing when it collided with one of the banks. According to the cargo management company, the multinational Bernhard Schutle Shipmanagement (BSM), two other tugs are scheduled to join this Sunday.
For its part, the Maersk shipping company, the main one that operates in the Suez Canal, has indicated that, once the passage is released, it will take between three and six days to undo the great traffic jam that has been generated on this road that connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean and which is the shortest sea route between Asia and Europe. Some vessels are already diverting their route to the Cape of New Hope to bypass Africa, despite the fact that this route involves several extra days of navigation.
With a capacity for 224,000 tons of cargo, the 400-meter-long container ship of the Taiwanese company Evergreen and the Panamanian flag span the entire width of the canal, blocking the passage through this road through which 10% of the world’s trade passes and the 25% of the freight containers.
