‘Stuck big time’ in Suez Canal: how ship caused global supply traffic jam

The initial probe into the blockage by the Ever Given focuses on a seasonal sandstorm and a sudden burst of wind.

A satellite image shows the Taiwan-owned MV 'Ever Given' (Evergreen) container ship, a 400-metre, 59-metre wide vessel, lodged sideways and impeding all traffic across the waterway of Egypt's Suez Canal.

The sun rose as one of the world’s largest container ships entered the Suez Canal toward the Mediterranean Sea. But aboard the Ever Given, an overnight desert storm obscured Tuesday’s daybreak and buffeted a vessel four football fields long.

Staring out the bridge windows, the captain navigated the critical choke point for global shipping. Beside him stood two Egyptian pilots mandated to accompany all large vessels on the half-day journey. Then a gust of wind turned the stack of 17,000 containers into an unwanted sail.

“Keep her steady!” shouted the captain, according to people who heard the conversation on the bridge.

Minutes later the bow banged into the eastern wall of the canal, shuddering the ship and blocking traffic on the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most critical links in the global supply chain.

“We’re stuck big time,” said an officer on the bridge, according to the people who heard the talk there.

Tugboats and dredgers were working today to free the giant container ship blocking Egypt's Suez Canal for a fourth day, forcing companies to re-route services from the vital shipping lane around AfricaPicture: AFP

The ship’s operator, Taiwan’s Evergreen Group, declined to name the captain or other officers aboard the ship or make them available for comment. It couldn’t be determined whether the captain or one of the Egyptian pilots was steering the ship at the time of the crash.

As tugboats and dredgers work around the clock to dig out, partially refloat and move the ship out of the way, focus is now turning to how the calamity happened and who should be held responsible. The answer could have major repercussions on insurance claims by the multiple parties involved, and reverberate through the Egyptian leadership.

Navigation experts and engineers at the Suez Canal Authority, the body that operates the waterway, are investigating the crash. They are joined by the ship’s owners, Japan’s Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. Claims adjusters for international insurance companies are flying in to check the site.

Shipping experts warn it could take days, if not weeks, before movement returns to normal.

People involved in the investigation, still in its initial stages, said it is focusing on a sandstorm and a roughly two-minute burst of wind that likely threw the vessel inexorably off course. The conduct of the ship’s captain and the Suez Canal Authority are being inspected for any missteps, as is the potential for mechanical failure, according to those people.

“A burst of strong wind in a confined water space can rattle a ship,” said Fotis Pagoulatos, an Athens-based naval architect who has been part of salvage operations of other stuck vessels. “It’s like being in a tall building hit by strong air currents. You can feel the vibrations, but a ship is not planted in the ground with concrete and iron. It just floats and it can jolt to the point that you lose control.” Some officials involved in the investigation have suggested that the Ever Given was speeding or overloaded, based on the way it got stuck in the canal. People close to the ship’s operator said traffic in the canal is so busy that picking up significant speed is impossible.

Evergreen said Friday that a salvage team was continuing to clear sand and mud around the ship’s bow to free the vessel during high tide. Picture: AFP

The blockage is the latest in a series of transportation crises to confront Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi. The 2016 crash of an EgyptAir flight from Paris shook international confidence in the Egyptian government after French officials accused its investigators of obstructing the probe.

Mr. Sisi, a retired general turned politician who seized power in a coup eight years ago, hasn’t spoken publicly about the canal blockage, but he is receiving regular updates, according to Egyptian officials. They said initial results from a separate investigation ordered by Mr. Sisi indicated that the canal authority waited hours before closing the waterway, exacerbating the crisis by removing options for some ships to avoid the canal.

Spokespersons for the canal authority, Mr. Sisi and the Egyptian government didn’t respond to calls and messages seeking comment.

Evergreen said Friday that a salvage team was continuing to clear sand and mud around the ship’s bow to free the vessel during high tide. Yukito Higaki, president of Imabari Shipbuilding Co., whose group of companies includes the ship’s owner, told a news conference in Japan that workers had hoped to dislodge the ship by Saturday.

Shipping operators involved in the logjam estimate $12 billion of cargo is on vessels stranded at other points along the 120-mile canal or idling just outside it. Avoiding the passageway by sailing around Africa can add two weeks and hundreds of thousands of dollars in freight costs per voyage. As a result, shipping and oil prices have risen, and the already-pressured logistics industry will likely face delays and extra costs.

For its part, the Suez Canal Authority stands to lose some $15 million a day in revenue from tolls, according to official figures, a vital source of income for a country of 100 million people already reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic’s hit to tourism and remittances.

The Ever Given might also incur costly damages in the process of being pulled from where it’s stuck.

If authorities ultimately conclude the captain was responsible, they could seize the vessel, secure blocked funds for its insurer and sue its owner for damages, according to Sarosh Zaiwalla, a lawyer who represents shippers in maritime disputes. Likewise, the vessel’s owner could claim Egyptian authorities acted irresponsibly by letting it enter the canal during a storm.

Springtime storms across the Middle East — known locally as “khamsin,” for the 50 days they tend to last — have in the past impeded military campaigns from Napoleon to Rommel. A technical official at the canal authority said the winds were moving south to north, the same direction as the ship.

It’s not uncommon for ships to sail through the canal despite bad weather. But in such a confined space, a sudden gust of wind can render the ship’s navigational system ineffective.

Some investigators have claimed a failure of navigational equipment could have caused the accident. But those who have been through the canal and others directly involved in the investigation said that explanation strains credulity, since steering through the channel relies largely on following the line of ships.

Yiannis Sgouras, a veteran Greek captain who has crossed the canal dozens of times, said all it requires is looking at and radioing with the ships immediately in front and behind. “In some parts of the canal when it’s busy, it’s like rush hour in Manhattan on a single lane,” he said.

Egyptian pilots board the vessels and help guide them through the canal. But once the ship got stuck, Egyptian authorities were hesitant to close the canal, allowing other vessels to enter the channel only to find themselves joining others in miles-long lines.

The captain of a European-operated boxship said he was informed of the canal’s closure 45 minutes after hitting the bottleneck.

Added the mechanic on a Greek-operated tanker, Manolis Kritikos: “We kept going until we hit the traffic jam.”

The Wall Street Journal