China-bound cargo vessel refloated in Suez Canal after running aground
- MV Glory got stuck in the canal, which is vital for global trade, on Monday, disrupting traffic after a ‘sudden technical failure’
- The 225-metre-long ship is carrying over 65,000 tonnes of corn from Ukraine; it’s about half the length of the Ever Given, which blocked the Suez in 2021
The Suez Canal Authority said on Monday that a cargo ship carrying corn that went aground, briefly disrupting traffic in the waterway that is vital for global trade, was refloated and canal traffic was restored.
Canal services firm Leth Agencies said the vessel, MV Glory, ran aground near the city of Qantara, in the Suez Canal province of Ismailia. The firm said three canal tugboats had worked to refloat the ship.
The Glory had experienced a “sudden technical failure” according to the SCA.
Parts of Egypt, including its northern provinces, experienced a wave of bad weather on Sunday.
Satellite tracking data showed the Glory in a single-lane stretch of the Suez Canal just south of Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea.
Leth Agencies later posted a graphic that suggested the Glory was against the west bank of the canal, pointed south and not wedged across the channel. It identified the three tugs aiding the vessel as the Port Said, Svitzer Suez 1 and Ali Shalabi.
The Glory is 225 metres (738-feet) long, just over half the length of the Ever Given, the massive container ship that blocked the Suez in March 2021. The Ever Given was stuck partly because it was longer than the width of the canal, which is roughly 300 metres wide.
The Panama-flagged Ever Given crashed into a bank on a single-lane stretch of the canal, blocking the waterway for six days.
The Ever Given was freed in a giant salvage operation by a flotilla of tugboats. The blockage created a massive traffic jam that held up US$9 billion a day in global trade and strained supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ever Given debacle prompted Egyptian authorities to begin widening and deepening the waterway’s southern part where the vessel hit ground.
In August, the Singaporean-flagged Affinity V oil tanker ran aground in a single-lane stretch of the canal, blocking the waterway for five hours before it was freed.
The Joint Coordination Centre listed the Glory as carrying over 65,000 metric tons of corn from Ukraine bound for China.
The Glory was inspected by the Joint Coordination Centre off Istanbul on January 3. The centre includes Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian and United Nations staffers.
Opened in 1869, the Suez Canal provides a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo. It also remains one of Egypt’s top foreign currency earners.
In 2015, the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi completed a major expansion of the canal, allowing it to accommodate the world’s largest vessels.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
