Mar 30,2021: Shipping traffic through Egypt’s Suez Canal resumed on Monday after a giant container ship that blocked the busy waterway for almost a week was refloated.
Live footage on a local television station showed the ship surrounded by tug boats moving slowly in the centre of the canal. The station, ExtraNews, said the ship was moving at a speed of 1.5 knots (2.8kmph).
“Admiral Osama Rabie, the Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority [SCA], announces the resumption of maritime traffic in the Suez Canal after the Authority successfully rescues and floats the giant Panamanian container ship EVER GIVEN,” a statement from the SCA said.
“She’s free,” an official involved in the salvage operation said.
The 400-metre long Ever Given got jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal in strong winds early last Tuesday, halting traffic on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.
After dredging and excavation work over the weekend, rescue workers from the SCA and a team from Dutch firm Smit Salvage succeeded in partially refloating the ship earlier on Monday using tug boats.
Evergreen Line, which is leasing the Ever Given, confirmed the ship was successfully refloated and said it would be repositioned and inspected for seaworthiness.
After hauling the fully laden 220,000-tonne vessel over the canal bank, the salvage team pulled the vessel towards the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south end of the canal, SCA said.
The freeing of the vessel came after dredgers vacuumed up sand and mud from the ship’s bow.
“The time pressure to complete this operation was evident and unprecedented,” said Peter Berdowski, CEO of Smit Salvage owner Boskalis, after the Ever Given was refloated.
The company said about 30,000 cubic metres of sand was dredged.
