Filenews 24 March 2021
A giant container ship was swept away by a gust of wind and stranded inside the Suez Canal, closing one of the world's busiest sea routes.
A photo taken by an American engineer of a nearby ship posted on Instagram shows the MV Ever Given, a Taiwanese truck 400 metres long and 59 metres wide, while it has been adhering, lying vertically inside the Canal and blocking any passage.
Evergreen Marine Corp., which owns the vessel, said it was "likely the ship was hit by a gust of wind" and stranded. The company "is in talks with all parties, including the Authority that manages the canal, to offer assistance to the ship as soon as possible," he added.
According to Bloomberg news agency, more than 100 ships have formed a huge queue as they wait to cross the Suez Canal.
"We had a stranding incident," Alok Roy, director of BSM Hong Kong, which manages Ever Given, summed up, speaking to Bloomberg.
Julian Kona, a merchant navy engineer, uploaded to Instagram the photo of the giant truck she took from Maersk Denver, which has been blocked behind Ever Given.
"A ship in front of us stranded while crossing the Canal and has now blocked the crossing," he wrote. "It looks like we might have to wait here for a while," he added.
According to the specialist vessel monitoring website Vessel Finder, Ever Given is bound for Rotterdam.
"Tugboats are trying to bring the vessel back to normal sailing," Leth Agencies, a company that offers services to shipping companies whose vessels use the Canal, said via Twitter.
Egyptian authorities have made no comment on the incident so far.
Since the Suez Canal, which was inaugurated in 1869, it passes about 10% of commercial ships operating internationally.
Nearly 19,000 ships used it last year, according to the Suez Canal Authority.
The channel is a major source of revenue for Egypt: in 2020 it contributed 5.61 billion euros to the european union. That's a lot of dollars.
Head of state Abdel Fatah al-Sisi announced in 2015 a project to develop the Canal with the aim of reducing waiting times and doubling the number of ships passing through it by 2023.
Source: news.in.gr
