Suez Canal - Ships are sitting ducks and a piracy risk - a brief overview and numbers
Efforts have resumed to free the container ship blocking the Suez Canal, as fears it could take "weeks" force trapped boats to consider turning around. Eight tug boats are currently working to drag the 400m (1,312ft) Ever Given to deeper water after it ran aground and blocked one of the world's busiest shipping lanes on Tuesday morning.
Three days later and the backlog of ships caused by the MV Ever Given’s grounding in the Suez Canal has reached over 248, according to experts from Lloyds List Intelligence. Workers trying to free enormous vessel may have to dig down 16m around it.
In the past few hours a number of ships appear to be changing course to avoid Egypt’s blocked Suez Canal and sail around the Cape of Good Hope instead. However security experts are also worried about the potential for piracy, politically motivated sabotage, or even more mishaps as scores of massive freight ships remain stuck in two of the most volatile regions on the planet: the eastern Mediterranean and the Horn of Africa.
The biggest fear of any vessel is remaining static. That’s going to start raising huge concerns for these shipping companies
Joshua Hutchinson, general manager ARX Mouldings
In an effort to free the vessel authorities have deployed a specialised suction dredger that is able to shift 2,000 cubic metres of material every hour, with the Suez Canal Authority saying up to 10 times that amount might need to be removed. It is thought the salvage team is aiming for Saturday’s high tide which might help re-float the container vessel. Dredgers are also trying to clear mud and sand from underneath it in the hope it will eventually dislodge.
Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S told customers it expected a traffic backlog to grow. “The incident continues to create long tailbacks on the waterway, stopping vessels from passing and causing delays,” it said in an advisory. Maersk, the world’s biggest liner company in terms of capacity, said four of its vessels were stuck in the canal and another three were waiting to enter.
A team from Boskalis, a Dutch firm specialised in salvaging, started working with the canal authority on Thursday. The rescue efforts have focused on dredging to remove sand and mud from around the port side of the vessel’s bow.
We at Spot-Ship will continue to monitor the Suez situation and keep readers up to date through updates in The Panamax Post
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4 年i am not expert on cargo ships but idea came to my mind, what if the horse power of other cargo ships be used to get adequate thrust to make the currently stuck cargo ship to move. there are cargo ships on both sides of the canals which may have a comparable bulk and horse power to wedge out this stuck ship. note that its just an idea, only experts on the fields can assess the feasibility.