Yahoo Finance Suez Canal news — live: Ship makes 3,500nm Cape of Good Hope detour to avoid ‘weeks-long’ Ever Given blockage
Some goods bound for Britain may be delayed by the grounding of a massive container ship in the Suez Canal, according to the government.
The MV Ever Given, a Panama-flagged vessel operated by Taiwanese company Evergreen and owned by Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, of Japan, became wedged sideways across the canal on Tuesday following strong winds.
The governmnent’s warning came amid fears it might take “weeks” to re-float the massive container ship.
Peter Berdowski, the chief executive of Boskalis, a salvage firm involved in the rescue operation, told the Dutch current affairs programme Nieuwsuur on Wednesday evening that the vessel could not be simply pulled free because of its weight.
“The more secure the ship is, the longer an operation will take. It can take days to weeks. Bringing in all the equipment we need, that’s not around the corner,” he said.
Ever Given is a 200,000-tonne, 400m behemoth capable of carrying 20,000 containers.
Some 150 ships are now queueing both behind and ahead of it to pass through the vital canal, which carries about one-tenth of the world’s trade.
Read more:
