A giant container ship ran aground in the Suez Canal due to wind gusts, the shipping company that runs it said on Wednesday.And maritime traffic stopped at one of the busiest trade routes in the world.

Traffic came to a standstill on the narrow waterway separating mainland Africa from the Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday after the stumbling of a container ship flying the Panama flag and its registered owner in Japan.

“The container ship accidentally ran aground, possibly after gusts of wind“, Declared L. France Press agency Evergreen Marine Corp.

The company is in contact with relevant parties, including the authority that manages Channel, To help the ship as quickly as possible. “

According to the agency BloombergAnd the After the accident, more than 100 ships are waiting to cross the Suez Canal.

An Egyptian official who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity also attributed the incident to the strong winds in the region. The region suffered from winds and a sandstorm, on Tuesday, with winds speeding up to 50 kilometers (31 miles) per hour, according to Egyptian meteorologists.

“There was a major accident,” Alok Roy, director of BSM Hong Kong, which operates Evergiven, told Bloomberg News.

The reality temporarily puts part of global trade into trouble, since it is one of the main trade routes connecting Europe with Asia.And to avoid the ships being forced to besiege the African continent.

The canal is 190 kilometers long, 24 meters deep and 205 meters wide. For its part, the ship, which is 400 meters long and 59 meters wide and capable of carrying up to 20 thousand containers, was bound for Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

It is unclear why Ever Given switched onto the channel. The GAC, a global transport and logistics company, said Ever Geffen had suffered “blackouts while traveling north,” without going into details.

An Egyptian official indicated that the locomotives would try to re-float the ship, a process that would take at least two days.. The ship was stranded 6 kilometers north of the southern entrance to the canal, near the city of Suez, in the canal area with a single track.

Mercogliano, a former merchant sailor and associate professor of history at Campbell University in North Carolina, this could have a major multiplier effect on freight traffic between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

Consulted before Financial Times (FT)And the Samir Madani of Tanker Trackers said that about 10 million barrels of crude have receded near the northern and southern entrances of the two channels..

“The canal is the main bottleneck for global trade,” Madani said. FT. “If they can free the ship quickly, the effect will be reduced,” But any prolonged shutdown will have dire consequences, including an impact on oil prices And freight charges to force container ships to take the longest route around Africa. “

A United Nations database found Ever Gren is owned by Shoei Kisen KK, a boat rental company based in Imabari, Japan.

Approximately 19,000 ships, or an average of 51.5 ships per day, with a net tonnage of 1.17 billion tons passed through the canal during 2020.According to the Suez Canal Authority (SCA).

The arc of the Evergreen River touched the canal wall, while its stern appeared to rest on the western wall, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com. Several trawlers have applied the ship, in an attempt to push it in the right direction, according to the data.

A photo posted on Instagram by a user on another cargo ship shows how the Evergiven was suspended. And it seemed that the ship ran aground 6 kilometers north of the southern estuary near the city of Suez.

“The ship in front of us veered off while crossing the canal and is now stuck. Looks like we’ll be staying here for a while …” Julian Kona, the New York engineer who took the photo, wrote on her Instagram account.

Cargo ships and tankers appear to be lined up at the southern end of the Suez Canal, waiting to be able to pass through the waterway to the Mediterranean, according to data from MarineTraffic.

The Suez Canal was opened in 1869 and provides a crucial link for transporting oil, natural gas, and goods from east to west.. About 10% of world trade flows through the waterway and it remains one of the main sources of foreign exchange in Egypt. In 2015, the government of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi completed a major expansion of the canal, allowing it to house the largest ships in the world.

On the other side, The Director of the Suez Canal reported revenues of $ 5.61 billion in 2020, despite the coronavirus pandemic that affected maritime trade.This Sunday, I mentioned the authority running it.

The head of the Suez Canal Authority, Major General Osama Rabie, said in a statement that the year 2020 “is the third highest annual income in the history of the canal and reflects flexibility and professionalism in management that we have not seen before. In previous crises,” as in 2016.

Tuesday’s incident is a new complication for seafarers in the midst of the pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of workers have been trapped in their boats due to coronavirus measures. Meanwhile, the demand for freight traffic increased, adding pressure to weary sailors, according to Mercogliano.

“Because of the amazing pace of global freight movement at the moment, traders have a very tight schedule,” he said. “Add to that the sailors who have been unable to get on or off the boats due to coronavirus restrictions.”

With information from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press

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