After almost a week, the Ever Given has been partially freed from the shoreline of the Suez Canal. The salvage teams have worked tirelessly to get one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes back up and running. The grounded 400m-long container ship has been partially re floated and has been corrected by 80% in the waterway according to the Suez Canal Authority.
The backlog of ships should take roughly a week to clear with those at the back of the queue forecasted to transit the canal on the 7th April 2021. Many vessels have re-routed adding 7-10 days onto their transit time as they head off via the Cape of Good Hope to Europe.
This breakthrough is paramount on clearing the way for over £7bn of goods to pass through the Suez Canal which have been held up each day. In total 367 vessels are waiting to move through the canal, as the backlog continues to grow. The Canal provides the shortest link between Asia and Europe and is one of the busiest trade routes in the world with roughly 12% of the global trade moving through it.
EV Cargo Global Forwarding Chief Executive Officer Clyde Buntrock has said, “As you would expect we have been monitoring the situation with the stricken vessel Ever Given in the Suez Canal since last week. What has become abundantly clear is no matter how quick now the vessel is recovered, the impact to containerised shipping on the Far East – West bound, and Europe – Asia trades is going to be profound, especially layering on top of the already significant issues facing the industry. Our global team were mobilised last week in setting up contingency and recovery plans for all customers. We will share more on this in the coming 24hrs and your account teams will be contacting you to discuss, if they have not done so already.”
