Suez Canal traffic resumes after MV Ever Given refloated

The Suez Canal service firm has said the massive container ship has been set free and is on the move after being stuck in the vital waterway for almost a week.

The Ever Given was refloated on Monday and the Suez Canal reopened to traffic, the Suez Canal Authority said as local TV images showed it moving slowly up the canal.

"Admiral Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority, has announced the resumption of shipping traffic in the Suez Canal," the SCA said in a statement, shortly after shipping sites had showed it to have once more diagonally blocked the waterway.

Helped by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugboats managed to wrench the bulbous bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the canal's sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since last Tuesday.

READ MORE: What the closure of the Suez Canal costs global trade

Freeing the vessel

After hauling the fully laden 220,000-ton vessel over the canal bank, the salvage team pulled the vessel toward the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south end of the canal, where the ship will undergo technical inspection, canal authorities said.

Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com confirmed that the ship was moving away from the shoreline toward the centre of the artery.

Video released by the Suez Canal Authority showed the Ever Given being escorted by the tugboats that helped free it, each sounding off their horns in jubilation after nearly a week of chaos.

READ MORE: Efforts to move megaship blocking Suez Canal continue

Holding up global trade

The skyscraper-sized Ever Given has held up $9 billion in global trade each day, bringing disruption to the vital waterway. 

Over two dozen vessels opted for the alternative route between Asia and Europe around the Cape of Good Hope, adding some two weeks to journeys and threatening delivery delays.

The freeing of the vessel came after dredgers vacuumed up sand and mud from the vessel's bow and 10 tugboats pushed and pulled the vessel for five days, managing to partially refloat it at dawn.

It wasn't clear whether the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship hauling goods from Asia to Europe, would continue to its original destination of Rotterdam or if it would need to enter another port for repairs.

READ MORE: Suez traffic redirected to old channel as skyscraper-sized ship stranded

Sisi hails 'success'

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi hailed the "success" of an operation to unwedge the giant container ship, stuck in the Suez Canal.

"Today, Egyptians have been successful in putting to an end the crisis of the stranded ship in the Suez Canal, despite the enormous complexity surrounding the process," Sisi said on Twitter.

Sisi also said that "Egyptians have proved today that they are still up to the task."

He added that the Suez Canal, inaugurated in 1869, had been dug by "their grandparents with the force of their bodies."

One-week trade blockage

The Ever Given became jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal in high winds early on Tuesday, halting shipping traffic on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

At least 369 vessels were waiting to transit the canal, including dozens of container ships, bulk carriers, oil tankers and liquefied natural gas (LNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) vessels, SCA Chairman Osama Rabie told Egypt’s Extra News on Sunday.

Earlier on Monday, marine services firm Inchcape Shipping Services said the ship had been successfully refloated at 4:30 am local time (0230 GMT) and was being secured.

The ship’s technical manager Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Egypt’s Leth Agencies tweeted the ship had been partially refloated, pending official confirmation from the Suez Canal Authority (SCA).

It also said that the breakthrough came after intensive efforts to push and pull the ship with 10 tugboats and vacuum up sand with several dredgers at spring tide.

The Suez Canal salvage teams intensified excavation and dredging on Sunday and were hoping a high tide would help them dislodge the ship.

READ MORE: Egypt orders lightening stranded ship's cargo in Suez Canal

Markets reaction

Crude oil prices fell after news the ship had been re-floated, with Brent crude down by $1 per barrel to $63.67. Shares of Taiwan-listed Evergreen Marine Corp, the vessel’s lessor, rose 3.3 percent.

About 15 percent of world shipping traffic transits the Suez Canal, which is a key source of foreign currency revenue for Egypt. The current stoppage is costing the canal $14-$15 million a day.

Shipping rates for oil product tankers nearly doubled after the ship became stranded, and the blockage has disrupted global supply chains, threatening costly delays for companies already dealing with Covid-19 restrictions.

Some shippers had decided to reroute their cargoes around the Cape of Good Hope, adding about two weeks to journeys and extra fuel costs.

A note from AP Moeller Maersk seen by Reuters said it had so far redirected 15 vessels around the Cape after calculating that the journey would be equal to the current delay of sailing to Suez and queuing.

The SCA has said it can accelerate convoys through the canal once the Ever Given is freed.

READ MORE: What the closure of the Suez Canal costs global trade