A growing number of ships are currently trapped in the Suez Canal after the 20,000 TEU container vessel Ever Given ran aground Tuesday at 7:40 am local time. The incident is going to worsen major shipment delays as traffic on one of the world’s business waterways grinds to a halt.
As of March 24, 3:50 pm CET, supply chain visibility company project44 was tracking 34 container vessels either immobilized in the canal, or en route to the zone, representing 379,200 TEUs of capacity. Every hour, more vessels, including container ships, oil tankers, RoRo vessels, and bulk carriers, are being backed up in the Mediterranean to the north and the Red Sea to the south.
project44’s visibility software is monitoring the incident, giving customers automatic alerts if their containers are affected by the grounding. Ocean Insights, a project44 company, has also been providing real-time vessel positions and incident alerts through its Container Track & Trace product.
The trapped ships are waiting for engineers to free the grounded vessel, which could take days to complete according to local authorities. With more than 50 ships passing through the canal on any given day, the congestion is growing worse by the hour.
There are reports that Suez Canal authorities may open an older channel to ease traffic.
“It’s another big blow to global trade in an already back-logged and battered supply chain year,” said Jett McCandless, CEO of project44.
“The Suez Canal supports some 10% of global trade – and now the Evergreen vessel has single-handedly put a stop-block in both directions to that vital trade route between Asia and Europe. If they can’t dislodge it with tugs at high tide, they will have to start removing containers to lighten the load and refloat her.”
Evergreen Marine Corp issued the following statement on March 24.
Evergreen Marine Corp. received a notice from the owner of EVER GIVEN that
the chartered vessel ran aground in the Suez Canal at around 8 am local time on
March 23. This accident occurred at 6 nautical miles from the southern entry of
the Canal as the container ship proceeded northbound through the waterway from
the Red Sea. Gusting winds of 30 knots caused the container ship to deviate from
its course, suspectedly leading to the grounding.
Evergreen has urged the shipowner to investigate the cause of this accident, and
work closely with Suez Canal Authority and related agencies to refloat the
stranded ship as soon as possible.
EVER GIVEN is a 20,000 TEU-class container ship, currently leased by
Evergreen Marine Corp. under a time charter agreement with the crew hired by
the shipowner. The ship is currently deployed on a Far East-Europe service route.
