Suez Canal ship Ever Given freed, ending week-long crisis in one of the world’s busiest trade routes

Ever Given became jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal in high winds early last Tuesday

The obstruction created a massive traffic jam, holding up US$9 billion each day in global trade and straining supply chains

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The Ever Given container ship which ran aground in the Suez Canal, Egypt. Photo: EPA-EFE / Suez Canal Authority

Published: 4:29am, 29 Mar 2021Updated: 8:11am, 30 Mar 2021

Salvage teams on Monday set free a colossal container ship that has halted global trade through the Suez Canal, bringing an end to a crisis that for nearly a week had clogged one of the world’s most vital maritime arteries.

Helped by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugboats managed to wrench the bulbous bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the canal’s sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since last Tuesday.

After hauling the fully laden 220,000-ton vessel over the canal bank, the salvage team was pulling the vessel toward the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south end of the canal, where the ship will undergo technical inspection, canal authorities said.

A tugboat drags the Ever Given in the Suez Canal after the ship was successfully freed and re-floated. Photo: Handout/DPA/Zuma Press/TNS

Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com confirmed that the ship was moving away from the shoreline toward the centre of the artery.

Video released by the Suez Canal Authority showed the Ever Given being escorted by the tugboats that helped free it, each sounding off their horns in jubilation after nearly a week of chaos.

“We pulled it off!” said Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, the salvage firm hired to extract the Ever Given, in a statement. “I am excited to announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given … thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again.”

The obstruction has created a massive traffic jam in the vital passage, holding up US$9 billion each day in global trade and straining supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic.

It remained unclear when traffic through the canal would return to normal. At least 367 vessels, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, have piled up on either end of the canal, waiting to pass.