THE EVER Given has been partially re-floated in the Suez Canal as tug and dredging operations continue, according to reports from several international news outlets.
What damage the vessel has sustained during the ordeal, and when the waterway will be reopened are still questions that will remain unanswered for now.
It appears at least the stern is free from the banks of the canal.
Things are also looking good from a tides point of view. The tides over the coming days at the Suez Canal are forecast to be particularly high at 2.08 and 2.12 metres today, and 2.1 metres and 2.14 metres on Tuesday. Later in the week the high tides are predicted to be lower, with a 1.70-metre high tide predicted on Saturday.
Container lines diverting ships around Africa
While Ever Given has been at least partially re-floated, there is still a colossal logjam of vessels waiting to get through. The major container liners have taken decisions to send some vessels around the Cape of Good Hope rather than join the queues.
There are two vessels on MSC’s Australia Express service stuck in the queues on either side of the canal: Seamax Greenwich (voyage MA108A) is southbound, waiting at anchor, Conti Everest (voyage MA107R) is northbound waiting at anchor.
Separately, there are four vessels on MSC routes anchored in the Great Bitter Lake, six vessels southbound waiting at anchor (including the above-mentioned Seamax Greenwich), and nine vessels northbound waiting at anchor (including the above-mentioned Conti Everest).
in a statement last week said it may “envisage some missed sailings and adapt the volume of bookings it can accept, according to the reduced capacity available”. In a separate statement, MSC said it expects the Ever Given incident to have a “very significant impact” on container shipping. It said on Friday that it was re-routing 11 vessels via the Cape of Good Hope, notably MSC Sindy on the Australia Express Service (voyage number MA109A).
Several of the MSC vessels affected are also mentioned in Maersk’s numbers, as they are operated under the 2M partnership.
Maersk in a statement on Saturday said it and its partners had 27 vessels waiting to enter the canal, with two more expected to reach the queue that day. One vessel, Maersk Esmeraldas, is listed as “stick inside convoy”. Maersk, as of Saturday, has redirected 15 vessels around the Cape of Good Hope and did not expect to divert any further vessels during the weekend. The company is to make new calculations on redirecting additional vessels today.
CMA CGM said on Saturday it was diverting two vessels around the Cape of Good Hope: CMA CGM Leo, and CMA CGM Attila. One vessel on a CMA CGM route is stuck in the Great Bitter Lake: Ever Excel. Also on CMA CGM routes, there are eight ships stuck going northbound and 12 stuck going southbound.
Hapag-Lloyd has rerouted six vessels around the Cape of Good Hope as of Saturday, and it reported nine other vessels as affected by the situation.
Ocean Network Express said on Saturday that 17 vessels on its routes were impacted or would be impacted shortly.
Wallenius Wilhelmsen said on Friday in a statement that 11 of its vessels were impacted by the Suez Canal blockage. The company said it was monitoring the situation to review diverting vessels around the Cape of Good Hope.
See more recent reporting from DCN on Ever Given here and here.