The Ever Given container ship stuck in the Suez Canal has been partly refloated, the first step toward unblocking one of the world’s most important trade arteries.
Teams of salvagers and tugs will continue their efforts on Monday, as they seek to move the vessel out of the narrow waterway in which it ran aground and allow the canal to reopen. It could take around a week to clear the backlog of ships waiting to sail through it.
While the Suez Canal Authority said the Ever Given had been successfully refloated around 4:30 a.m. local time, the head of the company that’s a key part of the rescue mission said it was still too early to celebrate.
“We need to be realistic and that is that the stem of the ship is still very much stuck,” said Peter Berdowski, chief executive officer of Boskalis Westminster, the parent company of the salvage team.
“Putting the rear end of the ship afloat was the easy part,” he said to Dutch NPO Radio. “The challenging part will be the front of the ship. Now, we will start working at the front.”
More than 450 ships are waiting near the canal. The backlog is one more strain for global supply chains already stretched by the pandemic as the canal is a conduit for about 12% of global trade. Some ships have already opted for the long and expensive trip around the southern tip of Africa instead of Suez.
Oil prices fell more than 2% in early trading, but then erased their losses. Brent traded little changed at $64.59 a barrel as of 11:18 a.m. in London.
Source: Bloomberg
