Hopes increased on Sunday. Rescue efforts would drop a container that blocked the Suez Canal for six days, paralyzing foreign industry and causing losses of millions of dollars.
The MarineTraffic and VesselFinder programs said two tugboats were heading towards the important waterway to the rescue operation, while experts expected a high tide to help refloat the vessel.
The Italian-flag Carlo Magno and the Dutch-flag Alp Guard were in the Red Sea in the direction of enrolling in more than 10 tugboats deployed on the Suez Canal, the shipping tracking websites said.
The MV Ever Given, which has more than 4 fields, has been stuck diagonally on the canal leg since Tuesday, blocking the waterway in both directions.
The crisis has forced corporations to reconsider the diversion of ships around the African Cape of Good Hope, a longer and more expensive road between Asia and Europe.
Billions of dollars in goods are now stranded at each and every extreme of the Suez Canal and every passing day has millions of dollars in losses for Egypt and advertising companies around the world.
Several notes of optimism were taken on Saturday, adding the head of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Osama Rabie, who told reporters that the mega boat could be afloat on Sunday night.
“We may end today or (sunday), depending on the ship’s responsiveness” to the maximum tides,” he said.
Later, Rabie told an Egyptian news channel that the shipment “moved 30 degrees from left to right” for the first time on Saturday night.
“This is a sign,” he said, adding that 14 tugboats were deployed around the boat in difficulty and that rescue teams were running.
Rescue groups have intensified efforts to remove sand around the ship, with 27,000 cubic meters (more than 950,000 cubic feet) cleared at an intensity of 18 meters, SCA spokesman George Safwat said Sunday.
A high tide should begin on Sunday night.
“If they can’t evict you at this higher tide, the next higher tide may not be there for a few more weeks, and that becomes problematic,” said Plamen Natzkoff, a VesselsValue expert.
Despite some predictions that the megabuque could soon be rescued, Lloyd’s List, a shipping data and knowledge company, said Sunday that there had been an “increase” in the number of boats that chose to make excursions to Africa.
“Most major container lines are now diverting ships around the Cape of Good Hope and warns of long-term chain of origin disruptions. Some are starting to decline bookings,” he said on Twitter.
Richard Meade, editor-in-chief of Lloyd’s List, added: “Sources close to the rescue operation told me this morning that optimism within the team of experts on the floor was developing and that they hoped the shipment would simply move in the next 24 to 48 hours. But the lines have already made their call clearly.
French shipping giant CMA-CGM told the AFP on Sunday that two of its ships bound for Asia would deviate around the Cape of Good Hope, and that they were air or rail transport for some customers.
A study published Friday through German insurer Allianz said the blockade could charge the global industry $6 billion to $10 billion according to the day, which would reduce the industry’s annual expansion from 0. 2 to 0. 4 according to the weekly percentage.
“The blockade of the Suez Canal is the last straw of world trade,” the report says.
“First, delivery times are higher since the beginning of the year and are now longer in Europe than at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. “
The 400-meter-long (1300-foot) and 200,000-ton MV Ever Given veered off course in the Suez Canal on Tuesday, with 40-knot gusts and a sandstorm for the accident.
But Rabie said Saturday that “technical or human errors” may simply be the ranway of the Panama-flagled container ship, which crossed Taiwan, near the southern end of the canal.
Almost as long as New York’s Empire State Building is high, shipping diagonally blocks the 193-kilometer (120-mile) long channel and more than 320 shipments are stranded at the end, Rabie said.
Egypt loses about $12 million to $14 million in channel profits for the last day, Rabie said, while Lloyd’s List said the blockade held about $9. 6 billion in goods on both a day and both between Asia and Europe.
In a sign of the domino effects, the war-torn government in Syria said it had to ration already scarce fuel supplies, as the Suez crisis hit Syrian oil imports and the arrival of a shipment carrying fuel and other petroleum products.
Romania’s animal conditioning firm said 11 ships carrying cattle outdoors in the country had also been affected, and the NGO Animals International warned of a possible “tragedy” affecting some 130,000 animals.
Egypt’s Ministry of Agriculture has sent 3 veterinary groups to check for farm animals trapped at sea and supply them with fodder, Al-Ahram reported on Sunday.
by Mohamed Abouelenen