Why the container ship is stuck in the Suez canal, and how it will be taken out

A huge container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal on Tuesday created a traffic jam on one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

Two days later, more than 100 container ships are still waiting at both ends of the canal as tugboats and excavators fight to free Ever Given, which weighs 200,000 tons and is 390 meters long.

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If the ship is not released soon, it could be a disaster for the global shipping industry.

Why is Ever Given stuck?
Ever Given, owned by Japanese company Shoei Kisen Kaisha, was en route from China to the port of Rotterdam when it got stuck after a sandstorm swept through the region. Visibility dropped sharply, and wind gusts reached speeds of up to 13 m/s.

Attempts to free the ship
In addition to the eight tugboats trying to free Ever Given, excavators are working ashore to dig up the giant vessel. So far, these attempts have not been crowned with success.

The solution to the problem may be to lighten the ship’s cargo. One way to do this is to empty the ballast tanks. However, this can destabilize the ship. Another option would be to unload the ship, but this can be difficult to do without the necessary equipment.

There is no infrastructure in the middle of the Suez Canal to do this, so that would mean that a barge with a crane would stand next to it and remove these containers one by one. With a ship as big as Ever Given, it could take weeks.

Learn more about the Ever Given container ship
The giant Ever Given, which shipping company Evergreen Marine built in 2018, can carry up to 20,000 20-foot containers. The huge size of the ship may be the reason for this situation. Infrastructure has not kept pace with the increase in scale.

Ships of this size can be difficult to control, and any maneuvers must be started in advance so that the ship can complete them. A qualified crew is required to anticipate potential problems. In some cases, the captain may not notice the problem until it is too late.

“It’s basically a huge wall, “ says Stephen Brown, chair of the Department of Maritime Transport and International Business and Logistics at the California Maritime Academy. “If the wind blows from the side, the ship is very easy to turn around.”