Journalists look at a container ship navigating the Suez Canal on Tuesday
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)The Suez Canal is expected to see 140 ships pass through its waters on Tuesday after traffic restarted overnight following the release of the grounded Ever Given container ship.
Shipping convoys through the canal resumed on Monday evening after tugs pulled the 400-metre-long Ever Give free from the spot where it became wedged on March 23.
The blockage across a southern section of the canal forced a halt to all traffic, leading to a build-up of 422 ships at either end of the canal and along its course.
At the height of the crisis, the blockage was estimated to have been holding up around $400 million worth of trade every hour.
The Suez Canal separates Africa from Asia and is one of the busiest trade routes in the world, with around one tenth of total global trade moving through it.
Suez Canal Authority chairman Osama Rabie said 95 ships would pass by 7pm local time (5pm GMT) on Tuesday and a further 45 by midnight, reasserting that he hoped a backlog caused by the blockage would be cleared in three to four days.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said the Ever Given's grounding had drawn attention to the importance of the waterway for global trade.
"We didn't hope for something like this, but fate was doing its work. It showed and reaffirmed the reality and importance" of the canal, he said as he greeted staff on a visit to the Suez Canal Authority in Ismailia.
