The owner of a megaship blocking Egypt’s Suez Canal hopes to refloat it as early as Saturday night as the crisis forced companies to re-route services from the vital shipping lane around Africa.
The MV Ever Given, which is longer than four football fields, has been wedged diagonally across the span of the canal since Tuesday, blocking the waterway in both directions.
At a press conference in Japan Friday the president of Shoei Kisen — which owns the ship — told local media there were no signs of damage to its engines and various instruments.
“The ship is not taking water. There is no problem with its rudders and propellers. Once it refloats, it should be able to operate,” Yukito Higaki said in the western city of Imabari, according to the Asahi Shimbun.
The company aims to free the ship “tomorrow night Japan time” he added, the Nikkei said.
“We are continuing work to remove sediment as of now, with additional dredging tools,” Higaki said, according to the agency.
Workers have begun using machinery that can remove pulverized rocks in a bid to free the ship on Saturday, when the canal will be at high tide.
The blockage has caused a huge traffic jam of more than 200 ships at both ends of the 193-kilometer long canal and major delays in the delivery of oil and other products.
Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) — the ship’s technical manager — said Friday that an attempt to refloat the vessel had failed.
“The focus is now on dredging to remove sand and mud from around the port side of the vessel’s bow,” the firm said.
Smit Salvage, a Dutch firm that has worked on some of the most famous wrecks of recent years, confirmed there would be “two additional tugs” arriving by Sunday to assist, it added.
There had been “no reports of pollution or cargo damage and initial investigations rule out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding.”
Crews had been seen working through the night, using a large dredging machine under floodlights.
But the vessel with gross tonnage of 219,000 and deadweight of 199,000 has yet to budge, forcing global shipping giant Maersk and Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd to look into re-routing around the southern tip of Africa.
“Shipping companies are being forced to confront the specter of taking the far longer route around the Cape of Good Hope to get to Europe or the east coast of North America,” said Lloyd’s List, a shipping data and news company.
“The first container ship to do this is Evergreen’s Ever Greet… a sister ship to Ever Given,” it said, noting that the route can take up to an additional 12 days.
Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority said the megaship veered off course and ran aground when winds reaching 40 knots whipped up a sandstorm that affected visibility.
Lloyd’s List said data indicated 213 vessels were now stalled at either end of the canal, which links the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
The blockage was holding up an estimated $9.6 billion worth of cargo each day between Asia and Europe, it said.
“Rough calculations suggest westbound traffic is worth around $5.1 billion daily while eastbound traffic is worth $4.5 billion.”