Vessel Finder
- Ever Given, one of the largest cargo ships in the Suez Canal, was stil stuck as of Thursday.
- The ship has caused a massive logjam in one of the world's most important trade routes.
- Pictures and maps below show the state of the bottleneck.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
A massive container ship, the Ever Given, has been stuck blocking the Suez Canal for more than 48 hours despite ongoing efforts to free it.
The vessel, which got stuck early on Tuesday, was likened to a beached whale by the CEO of a Dutch engineering company drafted in to help tackle the problem Thursday morning.
"It is like an enormous beached whale. It's an enormous weight on the sand," Reuters reported, citing Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch company Boskalis.
The Suez Canal is of the most important shipping routes in the world, an essential trade route connecting Europe with Asia.
The Ever Given, a nearly 200-foot-wide, 1,300-foot-long cargo ship sailing under a Panamanian flag, is pictured here viewed from land as of Thursday morning local time:
Ahmed Fahmy/Reuters
A crew member in the vessel behind the Ever Given posted this Instagram image on Tuesday:
Suez Canal Authority via AP
The ship ran aground at about 7:40 a.m. local time on Tuesday, according to a statement from Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), the ship's technical manager.
BSM said in a statement late Wednesday that dredgers were being used to clear sand and mud from around the vessel. Meanwhile tugboats were working with Ever Given's winches to try to shift it, the statement said.
These have so far failed to free the ship. Berdowski, of the Dutch company, said: "We might have to work with a combination of reducing the weight by removing containers, oil and water from the ship, tug boats and dredging of sand."
Part of the vessel embedded itself in the bank of the canal, according to images shared on Twitter by the shipping analyst John Scott-Railton, an analyst based at the University of Toronto:
-John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) March 24, 2021
A statement posted Wednesday from the Ever Given's shipping company, GAC Egypt, said that wind conditions had complicated efforts to free the vessel.
The ship is headed for Rotterdam, Netherlands, from the Yantian District of China, according to the ship-tracking site Vessel Finder.
Suez Canal Authority via AP
The ship had traveled through Taipei and Malaysia and hoped to arrive in the Netherlands on March 31. Instead, it ended up wedged diagonally in the canal, blocking around 150 cargo ships from both sides.
A smaller second channel of the canal has allowed some smaller ships to move, but it is not large enough for the biggest container ships.
Suez Canal Authority via AP
Gehad Hamdy/picture alliance via Getty Images
The Suez Canal was constructed in 1869 to connect the Mediterranean and Red Seas.
It allows for the shortest possible trade route by water between Europe and Asia. In 2015, the Egyptian government finished an $8 billion renovation of the canal to attract more business and allow for smoother sailing.
Imagery on Vessel Finder showed the Ever Given's slow progress in getting unstuck:
A zoomed-in shot in the tweet below shows a tiny excavator used earlier to try to unwedge the ship.
-John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) March 23, 2021
At least 150 vessels are being delayed by the blockage, according to the Associated Press (AP).
Experts told Reuters that if the delay persists another 24 to 48 hours, some ships would be forced to detour the whole way around Africa, which is some 15,000 miles further than taking the canal.
In recognition of the disruption to global trade, the ship's Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, issued an apology on Thursday, the AP reported.
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