Ever Given refloats after a week of blockage in the Suez

The giant containership Ever Given, which ran aground in the Suez Canal last week, blocking passage on both sides of the waterway and creating a massive logjam, has finally been refloated.

The dredging operation has succeeded in loosening Ever Given’s bow within the bank of the Suez Canal and the ship’s stern has been cleared from the sand bank, Evergreen said on Sunday.

“The rudder and propeller of the vessel are fully functional and expected to provide additional support to tugboats assigned to move the container ship from the accident site so that normal transit may again resume within the canal,” the company explained over the weekend.

Reminiscing, the 20,000 TEU ship, flying the flag of Panama, has been taken on time-charter by Taiwanese shipping major Evergreen from Japan-based Shoei Kisen Kaisha.

The breakthrough is being reported across global media citing Inchcape Shipping, which shows Ever Given as dislodged and floating on the satellite map. Efforts are said to be underway to secure the vessel.

Meanwhile, the Suez Canal Authority has issued a statement saying that Ever Given was successfully floated this morning as the ship ‘responded to towing manoeuvres’, dislodging the ship from the sand bank.

As informed, the manoeuvres are scheduled to resume again later today as the water level rises to its maximum height of 2 meters in the period from 11:30 a.m., allowing the ship’s course to be completely modified to the midway.

Lieutenant General Osama Rabie, Chairman of Suez Canal Authority, reassured the international maritime community that the navigation in the canal would be restored once the vessel is fully floated and directed to wait in the Lakes region for its technical examination.

He also praised the heroic men of the Suez Canal Authority who worked tirelessly around the clock to refloat the vessel and enable the canal to return to normalcy.

GAC Egypt also confirmed the reports informing that the work to refloat the grounded container vessel restarted at about 03:30 a.m. local time on Monday, March 29.

“By 0450 hours, about 15 tugs involved in the operation had managed to almost refloat the ship,” GAC added.

“The ship’s aft was completely freed, whilst the bow was nearly free, and tugs were continuing to push and pull to move the bow. Work was also still continuing to refloat the bow side of the vessel.”

The refloating of the grounded containership is being reported on the back of a massive salvage operation, which saw more than 20,000 tons of sand and mud removed from the grounding site to free the ship.

Shoei Kisen appointed two maritime professional rescue teams for the job: Smit Salvage, from the Netherlands, and Nippon Salvage from Japan.

Around 10 tugboats and two dredger vessels were deployed to the scene, with additional machinery and equipment on the banks assisting the effort.

The grounding resulted in the blockage of one of the most important trade arteries of the world, which accounts for 12% of the global trade. Estimates from Bloomberg indicate that the gridlock has halted $9.6 billion worth of traffic a day.

Figures show that over 300 ships were waiting at anchorage over the weekend to pass through the canal, with the container shipping sector believed to have been impacted the most.

“Currently, Maersk and partners have three vessels stuck in the canal and 27 vessels waiting to enter the canal, with two more expected to reach the blockage today. We have until now redirected 15 vessels around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa,” Maersk said in a customer advisory on Sunday.

Redirecting vessels also means that these vessels will be missing somewhere else during that time, leading to further shortage in the market.