Shipping boss apologises for 'tremendous trouble' as new attempts made to free cargo ship blocking Suez Canal

[EnterpriseSovereign]

The boss of the shipping company that owns the giant vessel currently blocking the Suez Canal has apologised for causing "tremendous trouble," as new attempts are made to dislodge the ship.

The Ever Given, owned by Japanese firm Shoei Kisen KK, got wedged on Tuesday in a single-lane stretch of the canal, north of the southern entrance near the city of Suez.

Attempts are to be made to refloat the giant container ship with the help of the tide.

Maritime traffic has ground to a halt due to the blockage, with more than 200 vessels waiting outside the Suez Canal and many more forced to change course.

Suffolk company has goods worth half a million stranded on the 'Ever Given' in Suez Canal
Authorities hope a combination of tidal movements, tugboats, and dredging of the banks and sea floor will help get the massive cargo ship afloat again as the high tide starts to go out.

"We apologise for blocking the traffic and causing the tremendous trouble and worry to many people, including the involved parties," President Yukito Higaki - who runs the Japanese company - told a news conference on Friday.

The company said it was considering removing its containers to get the weight off the vessel, but it is a very difficult operation.

The container ship followed a complicated course that appeared to draw out the outline of a graphic symbol when it entered the canal.

A team from Boskalis, a Dutch firm specialising in salvaging, was working with the canal authority using tugboats and a specialized suction dredger at the port side of the cargo ship’s bow.

An initial investigation showed the vessel ran aground due to strong winds and ruled out mechanical or engine failure, the company said.

Link. It gets even better, apparently they were just dicking around before entering the canal.

[Crazedwraith]

I've got to wonder who'd liable for the cost of the delays of a significant chunk of the world's merchant navy.

I guess it would come down to if their was negligence/human error involved if the wind was strong to count as an act of god.

[Solauren]

Which would be easier and quicker - attempting to dislodge and refloat the ship loaded, or unloaded? (as in unload the cargo to the beach or another ship)

ALternatively, what about unloading the ship, and then blowing it apart?

[Agent Fisher]

Dislodge and refloat. They're not at a port, the Ever Given can carry 20,000 Twenty Foot containers. To try and unload that, jammed in the middle of the canal, with no cranes or port facilities is logistically a nightmare. Not to mention, it'd have to be done in a precise order of unloading to prevent capsizing.

And scrapping it in place would shut off the canal for years.

[Solauren]

In other words, the world has to wait while heavy equipment is located and flown in to dislodge it.

[Batman]

'Flown in'? On what, a Star Destroyer?

[Agent Fisher]

They're bringing in heavy Tugs and dredging gear. They'll get it out. But yeah, nothing flown in will help.

[Broomstick]

In theory, heavy lift sky crane helicopters could help with the unloading... at enormous expense.

In order to unload the ship at all cranes would need to be brought in. It has to be done carefully due the previously mentioned capsizing problem, or at least falling over on its side problem. There is the problem of stabilizing any land based cranes. I don't know if there are floating cranes of sufficient capacity or if they could be taken the appropriate spot in the canal. I've also heard that improper unloading could affect the stress on the ship's hull and potentially lead to a breakup but I'm not engineer.

It's a mess.

At best it's going to be weeks before this cluster is unfucked. If the unfucking does not go well then it could be months or even years before the canal reopens.

Of course, global shipping can and will adapt as necessary - it's just going to take longer and cost more to get stuff where it's going.

[aerius]

So let me get this straight. Someone used a giant dick shaped object to draw a massive cock & balls graphic in the gulf, then rammed the dick into a canal and got it stuck, cockblocking half the ship traffic in the world. 2021 is going "hold my beer, watch this!"

[LadyTevar]

Update:
Fresh Effort to Refloat Ship

A fresh effort is under way to refloat a giant container ship blocking Egypt's Suez Canal.

Canal authorities say 14 tugboats are trying to take advantage of Saturday's high tide and more will arrive on Sunday if the latest attempt fails.

The Ever Given became wedged in the canal - one of the world's busiest trade channels - on Tuesday.

More than 300 ships are stuck on either side of the blockage. Some have had to reroute around Africa.

By late Friday, dredgers had moved about 20,000 tonnes of sand from around the Ever Given's bow, which was stuck deep into the canal's bank.

The chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Osama Rabie, told a news conference on Saturday that 9,000 tonnes of ballast water - which is stored in tanks to stabilise the ship - had been removed to help lighten the vessel.

He said the stern had begun to move on Friday night, and that the rudder and propeller had started working again. Strong tides and winds had made freeing the ship more difficult, he added.

Mr Rabie could not say how soon the ship might be refloated but said the SCA would "work around the clock" to get other ships through once the Ever Given was free.

Initial reports said the 400m-long (1,300ft), 200,000-tonne vessel ran aground in high winds and a sandstorm that affected visibility.

However, Mr Rabie said weather conditions were "not the main reasons" for the ship's grounding.

"There may have been technical or human errors," he told reporters, without giving details. "All of these factors will become apparent in the investigation."

The Ever Given is operated by the Taiwanese firm Evergreen Marine and owned by Shoei Kisen of Japan.

Yukito Higaki, president of Shoei Kisen, said on Friday that the ship did not appear to be damaged.

"The ship is not taking water. Once it refloats, it should be able to operate," he said.

What is the back-up plan?
If digging the sand away and pulling the ship with tugs fails to move it, Mr Rabie said rescue teams might have to remove some containers to lighten the load. He said he hoped that would not be needed.

John Denholm, president of the UK Chamber of Shipping, earlier told the BBC that transferring the cargo to another vessel or the canal bank would involve bringing in specialist equipment, including a crane that would need to stretch more than 60m (200ft) high.

"If we go through the lightering process, I suspect we're talking weeks," he said.

[bilateralrope]

Of course, global shipping can and will adapt as necessary - it's just going to take longer and cost more to get stuff where it's going.

Which makes me wonder if anyone is going to suffer from necessities like food or medicine being delayed.

[Broomstick]

It could happen.

There are ships with food - mostly grain I think - as their cargo.

There are also stranded ships with live cargo - that is, animals. Which have to be fed and watered and I'm positive the supplies on board are not infinite.

[Ralin]

It's not like there's a line of ships sitting behind the traffic jam. Ships with perishable or time sensitive cargo will already have been re-routed. It can't be that hard to resupply the ones with live cargo.

And yes I know that someone is going to drop a link or effort post about why some live cargo is incredibly difficult and/or expensive to send more food/water/vital medications to en route and prove me wrong.

[GuppyShark]

They simply don't care enough, typically. They'll write them off as a loss and take the insurance payout instead of arranging to feed and water them.

[LadyTevar]

They simply don't care enough, typically. They'll write them off as a loss and take the insurance payout instead of arranging to feed and water them.

That's the sad part.

[bilateralrope]

It's not like there's a line of ships sitting behind the traffic jam. Ships with perishable or time sensitive cargo will already have been re-routed. It can't be that hard to resupply the ones with live cargo.

I'm expecting that every ship that can reroute already has. But even that is going to cause some delays as ships must take a longer route.

For food and medicine, the worry is that stores don't like having stock on shelves for longer than necessary because storage space costs money. So the question becomes one of: Do they have enough in stock to last through the delays ?

[Solauren]

They're bringing in heavy Tugs and dredging gear. They'll get it out. But yeah, nothing flown in will help.

I was thinking more heavy construction equipment capable of digging, earth-mover sized dump trucks to hold whatever was dug up, that sort of thing.

[Broomstick]

Behold the great ship Ever Grounded:


The red paint shows where the waterline should be, so they've raised and lightened the boat a considerable amount already. As of today the rudder has been freed. On the downside, it has been discovered that the bow has actually ridden up onto/into hard rock and not just sand. There has been some damage, as the forward void space and bow thrusters have been taking on water but folks on site say that it's under control and they're pumping it out of those spaces.

Dutch firm Smit and Boskalis have been called in. I gather that they're the guys you call when you're really up shit creek and at a loss for what to do. If they show up you've had a really bad day at the office.

The Eqyptian president has given the OK to start unloading cargo containers. Looks like this is going to take a while....

[GuppyShark]

They simply don't care enough, typically. They'll write them off as a loss and take the insurance payout instead of arranging to feed and water them.

That's the sad part.

Yeah. As soon as they were reduced to live 'stock', these thinking, feeling beings were just inventory items with a monetary value.

I haven't attended many rallies in my life, but I do attend those opposed to Live Export down here.

Also, Broomstick. Your post is one of the best I've seen on this matter so far. Most of what I've seen about this ship so far has just been cringey memeing.

[bilateralrope]

Ever Given 'partially refloated' in the Suez Canal, almost a week after the giant container ship ran aground blocking the critical trade route

Engineers on Monday “partially refloated'' the colossal container ship that continues to block traffic through the Suez Canal, a canal services firm said, without providing further details about when the vessel would be set free.

Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed that the ship's bulbous bow, once firmly lodged in the canal's eastern bank, had been wrested from the shore.

Nearly a week ago, the skyscraper-sized Ever Given got stuck sideways in the crucial waterway, creating a massive traffic jam.

The obstruction is holding up US$9 billion (NZ$12.9b) each day in global trade and straining supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic.

As of Monday, 367 vessels, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, are still waiting to pass through the canal, while dozens more are taking the alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip, adding some two weeks to journeys and threatening delivery delays.

The partial freeing of the vessel came after intensive efforts to push and pull the vessel with 10 tugboats when the full moon brought spring tide, Leth Agencies said, raising the canal's water level and hopes for a breakthrough.

A top pilot with the canal authority, speaking on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorised to talk to journalists, confirmed that the ship had been partially refloated.

Lieutenant General Osama Rabei, the head of the Suez Canal Authority, said workers continued “pulling manoeuvres'' to refloat the vessel early Monday.

Overnight, several dredgers had toiled to vacuum up 27,000 cubic meters of sand and mud around the ship. Another powerful tugboat, Carlo Magno, was racing to the scene to join the efforts.

Although the vessel is vulnerable to damage in its current position, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, the company that owns the Ever Given, dismissed concerns on Monday, saying that the ship's engine was functional, and it could pursue its trip normally when freed.

Ship operators did not offer a timeline for the reopening of the crucial canal, which carries over 10 per cent of global trade, including 7 per cent of the world's oil. The unprecedented shutdown could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East.

Canal authorities have desperately tried to free the vessel by relying on tugs and dredgers alone, even as analysts warned that 400-meter-long ship, weighing 220,000 tons, may be too heavy for such an operation.

As a window for a breakthrough narrows with high tide receding this week, fears have grown that authorities would be forced to lighten the vessel by removing the ship's 20,000 containers – a complex operation, requiring specialised equipment not found in Egypt, that could take days or weeks.

Going round Africa adds two weeks to the travel time. So I'm expecting that some countries are going to run out of some products, I just hope it's nothing that people can't go without.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Well it took a week but they did it! Makes me wonder if they would concrete the banks of the canal to prevent something like this happening again.

[bilateralrope]

With ships that large, I doubt concrete would prevent anyone running aground. Plus there is the risk of concrete breaching the hull, making refloating the ship more difficult.

Though the real answer will be the capitalistic one. This is the first time it happened. Prevention costs money now. So lets assume it won't happen again for a while.

It could take a while to clear the backogl

Data firm Refinitiv estimated it could take more than 10 days to clear the backlog of ships. Meanwhile, dozens of vessels have opted for the alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip – a 5000-kilometre detour that adds about two weeks to journeys and costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs.

Depending on their place in the queue, some ships might still choose to divert around Africa. So we aren't past the possibility of shortages yet.

[Broomstick]

With ships that large, I doubt concrete would prevent anyone running aground. Plus there is the risk of concrete breaching the hull, making refloating the ship more difficult.

Though the real answer will be the capitalistic one. This is the first time it happened. Prevention costs money now. So lets assume it won't happen again for a while.

Er... yes and no. It's not the first ship to run aground in the canal. It might be the one that got the greatest publicity from doing so. It doesn't happen often, probably not often enough to make reconfiguring the canal worth it.

[Solauren]

What would it take to widen the canal? Say by digging trenches on either side, the removing the existing canal walls?

Because as ships get bigger, the likelyhood of something like this happening again goes up.

[Jub]

I think they need to consider that in the future such an event might not be an accident. What is the plan for a bad actor hijacking a ship, even for a short period, and deliberately sticking the ship into a narrow section of canal sideways before blowing a chunk of its hull out and destroying its machinery? If this took a week how long might that mess take? What if the hijackers take hostages and actively defend the wreck?

I think that there's a large potential cost to not effectively doubling up the canal so it runs two-lands along its entire route and a near term cost which is relatively cheap in that we can control its budget and pace whereas we can't do so for the next blockage that comes along.