As fears mount that the 339m-long, 20 388-TEU box ship Ever Given will remain lodged for the time being in the southern channel of the Suez Canal, lines are already diverting vessels away from the Africa-Middle East waterway.
This morning Grant Rowles of Asia Shipping Media reported that two container ships had changed their estimated time of arrival (ETA) after changing course.
Interestingly Evergreen, whose vessel has run aground on the eastern bank of the Suez, appears to be leading the way in not heading in that direction.
Another container vessel from the same line, the Ever Greet, has changed course to the Port of Rotterdam by sailing around South Africa.
Rowles said another ship, the Hyundai Prestige, en route from the UK to Thailand, had already changed course and would also be rounding the Cape of Good Hope.
The Prestige is said to have added 25 days to its ETA.
Generally the detour around the Cape adds at least 4 800 kilometres to a ship’s journey and takes roughly 12 days longer than passing through the Suez – depending on the weather.
In the meantime details keep coming through about the dire situation of the Ever Given and the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), as they scramble to dislodge the massive Neo Panamax vessel.
Information from ocean freight data trackers says since Tuesday, when the Ever Given shifted sideways across the channel, at least 49 container vessels carrying an estimated 407 500 TEUs have been effectively prevented from passing through the Suez.
SCA head, lieutenant general Ossama Rabei, told USA Today: “The Suez Canal will not spare any efforts to ensure the restoration of navigation and to serve the movement of global trade.”
Pictures showing big excavators dwarfed by the hull of the Ever Given, as attempts are under way to dig the vessel out of the fairly shallow eastern bank, have given rise to much ridicule on social media.
One message via Twitter said something along the lines of: If you think you’re having a bad day, think again. Your gigantic ship is not blocking the Suez.
Jokes aside, the Ever Given incident once more underpins the opinion that something is seriously wrong in ocean freight, especially with regard to containerisation.
Since the ONE Apus last November lost 1 816 boxes overboard when it encountered rough seas in Hawaiian waters, several other box ships have come a cropper mid-journey.
The Apus made it into the history books, for all the wrong reasons, and now the Ever Given has followed suit, because it seems to have lost its way in a channel with little leeway for error.
Initial indications are that something went wrong with its steering system.
But problems experienced astern, which forced the vessel off course, seem to point to stacking not being done properly, positioning too much weight at the bow and swivelling the vessel in a part of the Suez that in width is less than half the Ever Given’s length.
Stuck on a bank that’s notoriously shallow, the vessel is going to remain ‘berthed’ where it is for weeks, reputable sources from the ocean freight industry are speculating.
