The Suez Canal Finally Resumes Traffic after Giant Container Ship is Freed

It was a day of celebration on Monday after the world learned that the giant container ship that had been blocking the Suez Canal from traffic was finally freed.

While the European economy is more dependent on the Suez link, the U.S. was also expected to be affected if the channel wouldn’t clear.

The massive Ever Given ship, one of the largest container ships in the world, had become stuck in the waterway last Tuesday and was blocking traffic for days. The vessel is able to carry 20,000 containers, and is longer than 1,300 feet.

The Suez Canal is one of the busiest waterways where roughly 50 ships each day carry everything from consumer products to oil.

After being freed, The Ever Given ship had sailed north to the Great Bitter Lake, arriving there just before 1 p.m. ET, according to Leth Agencies, a transit agent at the Suez Canal. The vessel will now undergo a technical inspection.

The Suez Canal Authority had announced early Monday that the 222,000 ton ship had “responded to the pulling and towing maneuvers” and had corrected its course by 80%.

With the ship being stuck for days, plenty of memes started to circulate on the internet poking fun at the situation which really isn’t that funny at all.

Around 12% of global trade passes through the Suez Canal and according to Lloyd’s List estimates, there is more than $9 billion worth of goods passing through the 120-mile waterway each day. This translates to around $400 million per hour.

Had the ship continued to be stuck it may have started to really negatively affect economies. Almost 19,000 ships passed through the canal during 2020, for an average of 51.5 per day, according to the Suez Canal Authority.

According to the vessel’s technical manager, Bernhard Schulte, the Ever Given had run aground due to heavy winds.

Suez Canal Authority Chairman Osama Rabie said over the weekend however that human or technical error may have played a role in the ship deviating from its course.

“Today, the Egyptians have succeeded in ending the crisis of the delinquent ship in the Suez Canal despite the tremendous technical complexity that surrounded this process from every side,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said in a tweet on Monday.

More than 350 vessels are currently waiting on either side of the canal, according to estimates from Leth Agencies.