Tokyo—The container ship Ever Given has been partially refloated and tugs are still assisting operations at the Suez Canal, according to shipping agencies and sources at the location with knowledge of the developments.
Representatives of shipping agencies said they were still waiting for the Suez Canal Authority to make an official announcement. It remained unclear as to what extent the vessel had been dislodged and how soon the passage would be open to vessel transits.The Ever Given has already been partially refloated, but the salvage operation is continuing, an official at shipping agent, Leth Agencies said, adding that several tugboats were assisting the ship.
Even with the ship refloated, it will be several days before the traffic backlog can be cleared, and the near-term impact will only wear off early next month, a few shipping brokers said.
The main challenge is to safely tow the ship away without it running aground again, a marine navigator tracking the developments said.
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Brokers point towards the cascading effect of the accident, as there will be crowding at the load and discharge ports resulting in congestion, demurrage costs, additional bunker consumption as well as insurance claims.
Ships that were to move, load and unload last week, will do so now and those which were scheduled for this week will also be in a ready state. This will lead to rescheduling and revising of itineraries at several ports across the globe and it is difficult to quantify the additional costs that could run into of millions of dollars, brokers said.
Moving the Ever GivenThe Ever Given made a "slight move" in the shallows of the Suez Canal, led by 12 tugboats in its salvaging operations, an official at Shoei Kisen Kaisha, the owner of the container ship, told S&P Global Platts March 29.
"We are aware that the ship has started moving, according to our local correspondence," the Shoei Kisen official said. "This is still far from refloating as yet."
It has been six days since the ship got stuck in the canal and brought a major part of global trade, running into billions of dollars, to a standstill.
Separately, Taiwan's Evergreen Line, the Ever Given's charterer, said March 29 that the Ever Given's refloating operations had been postponed to approximately 2 am-3 am local time in Egypt, or 8 am-9 am Taipei time on March 29.
The rescue team had originally been scheduled to resume attempts to refloat at 2 pm local time in Egypt, or 8 pm Taipei time, on March 28, but after a site assessment the decision was made to delay that operation while more tugboats were summoned to join the effort, Evergreen said.
"In the meantime, the dredging operation is continuing to make progress. The refloating operation will resume as soon as the additional tugboats arrive to complete the deployment," Evergreen said in the statement.
"We are aware that the ship has started moving, according to our local correspondence," the Shoei Kisen official said. "This is still far from refloating as yet."
First published at 03:53 UTC; Update 1 at 05:25 UTC: Adds situation in canal, recasts headline, lead and first section
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