A handout picture released by the Suez Canal Authority on March 24, 2021 shows a part of the Taiwan-owned MV Ever Given (Evergreen), a 400-metre- (1,300-foot-) long and 59-metre wide vessel, lodged sideways and impeding all traffic across the waterway of Egypt’s Suez Canal.
Suez Canal Authority | AFP | Getty Images
Ever Given, the giant container ship blocking the Suez Canal, has been refloated and is being secured, maritime services company Inchcape said in a Twitter post.
The vessel is one of the largest container ships in the world. It is a 220,000-ton mega ship nearly a quarter-mile long with a 20,000 container capacity.
It became stuck last Tuesday after running aground while entering the Suez canal from the Red Sea.
The ship completely blocked the canal that’s home to as much as 12% of the world’s seaborne trade, and caused a traffic jam with hundreds of ships waiting to enter the Suez.
It remains unclear when the canal would be open to traffic.
The shipping crisis, now in its sixth day, has added to anxieties over the global supply chain which had already been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Each day of blockage disrupts more than $9 billion worth of goods, according to Lloyd’s List, which translates to about $400 million per hour.
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