The huge container ship blocking the Suez Canal has been moved by nearly 100ft, rescue crews trying to free the stricken vessel said today.
The 400-metre long Ever Given became wedged diagonally across a southern section of the canal amid high winds early on Tuesday, blocking one of the world’s busiest waterways.
More than 20,000 tonnes of sand has already been removed by dredgers, while 14 tugboats were deployed on Saturday to use high tides to shift the Japanese-owned 400m vessel.
In a major breakthrough, rescue crews reportedly told NBC News foreign correspondent Raf Sanchez they have managed to move the enormous carrier by around 98ft (30m).
Mr Sanchez wrote on Twitter : "Rescue crews say they managed to move the ship around 30m. That’s something but not enough when you’ve got a vessel nearly the height of the Empire State Building blocking the #Suez Canal.
"12 tugs will be in action today trying to continue the progress."
Over the weekend, progress has been made in the ship's movement thanks to a combination of dredging material from around the tanker and pulling and pushing the vessel with tugboats.
However, heavy winds and a strong tide made work to free the boat more difficult.
The Dutch-flagged Alp Guard and the Italian-flagged Carlo Magno, called in to help tugboats already there, reached the Red Sea near the city of Suez early on Sunday, satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed.
The tugboats will nudge the Ever Given as dredgers continue to vacuum up sand from underneath the vessel and mud caked to its port side, said Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which manages the Ever Given.
Lieutenant General Osama Rabei said an investigation is ongoing but did not rule out human or technical error.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement maintains that “initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding”.
However, at least one initial report suggested a “blackout” struck the vessel, which was carrying some 20,000 containers at the time of the incident.
Asked when they expect to free the vessel and reopen the canal, Lt Gen Rabei said: “I can’t say because I do not know.”
Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, the company that owns the vessel, said it is considering removing containers if other refloating efforts fail.
Workers reportedly plan to make two attempts on Sunday to free the ship, coinciding with high tides helped by a full moon Sunday night
Peter Berdowski, chief executive of Boskalis, told Dutch TV programme Nieuwsuur late on Friday he expects the vessel to be freed by Sunday night.
“If we don’t succeed in getting it loose next week, we will have to remove some 600 containers from the bow to reduce the weight,” he added.
“That will set us back days at least, because where to leave all those containers will be quite a puzzle.”
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on Saturday thanked foreign partners for offers to help refloat the ship.
Shipping rates for oil product tankers nearly doubled after the ship became stranded, threatening costly delays for companies already dealing with Covid-19 restrictions.
It comes as experts warned of price hikes in UK shops after the blockage sent world trade into a tailspin.
Shoppers could struggle to get hold of products ranging from screws to garden furniture as experts warned the “phenomenal impact” of the stuck Ever Given will be felt for “months”.
About 10 per cent of world trade flows through the canal, with some 19,000 vessels passing through the last year, according to official figures.
The closure could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East. Already, Syria has begun rationing the distribution of fuel in the war-torn country amid concerns of delays of shipments arriving amid the blockage.
As of early Sunday, more than 320 ships were waiting to travel through the waterway, either to the Mediterranean or the Red Sea, according to canal services firm Leth Agencies.
Dozens of others still listed their destination as the canal, although shippers increasingly appear to be avoiding the passage.
The world’s biggest shipping company, Denmark’s AP Moller-Maersk, warned its customers that it could take between three and six days to clear the backlog of vessels at the canal. Already, the firm and its partners have 27 ships waiting there.
“We have until now redirected 15 vessels where we deemed the delay of sailing around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa equal to the current delay of sailing to Suez and queuing,” the shipper said.
Mediterranean Shipping Co, the world’s second-largest, said it has already rerouted at least 11 ships around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to avoid the canal.
It turned back two other ships and said it expects “some missed sailings as a result of this incident”.
“MSC expects this incident to have a very significant impact on the movement of containerised goods, disrupting supply chains beyond the existing challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic,” it said.
