Huge Traffic Jam
Suez Canal is blocked by the “Ever Given” causing a Huge Traffic Jam and Supply Chain Disruptions.
Egyptian authorities Wednesday were engaged in a complicated effort to dislodge a giant container ship stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking all traffic on one of the world’s busiest shipping arteries.
The incident involving the Ever Given, which at 400-meters (1,312 feet) is one of the world’s biggest ocean vessels, had immediate consequences—and with maritime executives not expecting ship transits to resume Wednesday—risks ongoing disruption.
Ship trackers and brokers said more than 100 ships were waiting to transit the 120-mile canal, which connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean. Even if the blockage is cleared quickly, shipping executives expect the fallout from the incident to last for days, threatening a new pressure point in a global supply chain already under intense strain.
The Ever Given can carry more than 20,000 containers and is taller than the Empire State Building if turned upright.
“There are ships ahead and behind us as far as you can see,” said Manolis Kritikos, a mechanic at a Greek-operated tanker.
Pilot Error
The ship got stuck attempting to navigate the canal in extremely high winds.
“Piloting ships such as this in wind conditions outside accepted operating parameters is a recipe for disaster,” said Gregory Tylawsky, a ship captain with the Maritime Expert Group based in Santa Rosa, Calif.
Supply Chain Disruptions Mount
- Car and computer makers are straining from a global chip shortage, exacerbated by a fire in a big chip-making factory in Japan last week.
- Car makers have closed plants after a Texas cold snap earlier last month hit plastics production
- California ports have been hit by backlogs and delays.
Mish
Seems to me any speculation as to what went wrong is just that. Too soon to say pilot error or that the ship was improperly equipped. Maybe some of this proves out or maybe its simply a combination of factors. It is clear that ships passing through the canal have gotten larger and larger
HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?
That remains murky. The vessel entered the canal from the Red Sea on Tuesday morning and ran aground 45 minutes later.
The ship’s operator and Egyptian officials blamed winds gusting as much as 50 kilometers per hour (30 miles per hour), along with a sandstorm sweeping the area.
Cargo ships have grown in recent years to take on more containers as fuel prices have risen because big boats burn less fuel per container moved. Some have wondered if the ultra-large size of the Ever Given was a factor.
While the supersize of ships can increase their risk of running aground in the Suez Canal, boats just as big buffeted by winds just as strong have passed through the waterway without incident before.
Instead, it’s likely that “a combination of factors” was at play, said Ian Woods, a marine cargo lawyer and partner with the firm Clyde & Co.
“There’s the exposure to the elements, potential for a loss of power, potential for steering problems,” Woods said. “We’d expect a full investigation.”
I suspect they’ll either need to dredge the canal or limit ship size. The latter more likely. A ship that size is like a giant sail and tug boats are useless apparently
They should have bow and stern side thrusters to aid in maneuvering in tight spaces. I expect they were simply overwhelmed by a huge gust of wind. Ordinarily a good pilot can make a ship like that move sideways as easy as back or forth.
Dredging might help a little, but probably not much. They will probably make new wind guidelines for the real giant container ships. It’s the containers that are the problem, more than the ship.
anyone find the spec for this ship? One source said it had them but that there was a power failure. I’m not sure if this is correct
two bot thrusters
bow
is there a group that is pushing a standard?
Is it pilot error? i doubt it from what I’m reading. More likely the authorities and ship authorities are permittign ships that are simply too large into the canal
Evergreen Marine Corp., a major Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the ship, said the Ever Given had been overcome by strong winds as it entered the canal, something Egyptian officials earlier said as well. High winds and a sandstorm plagued the area Tuesday, with winds gusting to 50 kph (30 mph).
In a sign of the turmoil the blockage has caused, the ship’s Japanese owner even offered a written apology.
Both Suez Canal Authority officials and Evergreen Marine have blamed winds that reportedly reached up to 30 mph. But that explanation has garnered some skepticism, given that the ship weighs as much as 220,000 tons when fully loaded and was built to withstand much stronger gusts.
Some experts suspect that the ship’s massive size — it’s more than a quarter-mile long, making it one of the largest container ships ever built — may have been a major additional contributing factor.
Such immense ships present problems because the piles of containers on the deck effectively act like a giant sail, Bill Kavanagh, a lecturer in nautical science at the National Maritime College of Ireland who has navigated the Suezas a captain, told RTE. “It can easily destabilize the vessel and blow a vessel off course, and when you’re taking about a vessel of so many thousand tons of weight, its momentum is quite considerable, and it’s very hard to stop any movement caused by wind.”
“We are determined to keep on working hard to resolve this situation as soon as possible,” Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. said. “We would like to apologize to all parties affected by this incident, including the ships travelling and planning to travel through Suez Canal.”
Want to keep up with this story? Go to GCaptain.com . It is the news site for shipping nerds.
The memes there are hilarious!
MWM
MWM
Gold making a good move this morning. The fun trade hasn’t been much fun this week, but at least I’m not underwater anymore.
In a million or so years, the African rift valley should open enough to connect the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean eliminating the need for the canal.
We might be in Snowball Earth by then.
Opened in 1869 and nearly two centuries later still one of the world’s most important and heavily used shipping lanes. Wars have been fought over it. Egypt has a monopoly but lot of countries are proposing alternates.
Good cost comparison study
The ship paid about $ 700,000 in tolls for using the canal
The cheaper alternative with low fuel prices is around the bottom of Africa…
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) is set to lose over $10m in revenue from container lines routing vessels via the Cape of Good Hope rather than its waterway.
According to new Alphaliner research, “the number of containerships that have opted to use the Cape route and bypass the Suez Canal has risen to a historic peace-time high,” including at least 20 sailings on the Asia-Europe, Europe-Asia and North America east coast-Asia trades.
“A unique combination of a container tonnage surplus and rock-bottom bunker prices has increasingly prompted ocean carriers to avoid the canal – and thus its fees,” the analyst noted today.
“Rather unusually, even three westbound Asia-Europe headhaul sailings have opted for the Cape route, all operated by CMA CGM.
“Carriers very rarely choose this longer route for the time-sensitive headhaul, but the low bunker price and lack of demand in European markets, hit by the Covid-19 lockdowns, have suddenly made such moves viable,” it added.
As well as the three Ocean Alliance westbound sailings – two on the FAL3 service and one on the FAL1 – Alphaliner tracked nine Europe-Asia and eight North America east coast-Asia backhaul sailings avoiding Suez with vessels operated by Evergreen, MSC, ONE and Cosco.
Suez Canal charges vary according to the size of the vessel, its routeing, the number of containers carried and the proportion of laden boxes, but as a rule of thumb, a fully laden 20,000 teu container vessel on a headhaul Asia-Europe sailing could expect to pay around $700,000 in transit fees.
The distance difference between the two routes is around 3,500km on Singapore-Rotterdam sailing.
In response to the moves, the SAC has announced cuts in transit fees, varying from around 17% for ships involved in European trades, to 60%-75% for vessels returning to Asia from the east coast of North America.
They get a discount with EZ-pass
The perils of a JIT system with some very important chokepoints.
Along the waterway–Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Yemen, and Djibouti. Most of those countries in one form of turmoil or another
Djibouti, the smallest country along the route, has military bases from the US, Saudi Arabia, Japan, France, Italy, Spain and China. Hmmm, I wonder why.
Toilet paper is the new currency.
More intrinsic value than Bitcoin though…
It’s just a temporary situation with limited economic consequences overall. However there is a danger in that this blockage prevents warships (ours and our allies) from deploying rapidly to the Gulf, the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
Sounds like something to do on purpose prior to a war.
Yes it does but it could also be just an accident. Nevertheless it is worrisome.
Putin to ship captain ” I give you a few million to run that ship aground”. Captain “screw this job”.
Reported to be sailing at 220,000 tonnes, that would be a lot of force (or Newtons, if you prefer) getting the vessel stuck! I am inclined to think that this will take a fair bit of time to resolve this situation, obviously at this point it won’t be happening quickly. Maybe a week, with ripple effects lingering for a few months?
I read (on the internet!) that toilet paper could become a problem again, because of pulp supplies related to the Canal Crisis 2021. Get thee to a supermarket.
I’ve never understood the whole toilet paper shortage issue.
Wood is harvested by “socially distant” crews in lightly populated areas.
The production of toilet paper is done in giant plants with relatively few employees.
Trucks have continued to roll.
So where is the break-down in supply happening?
In Minnesota, we’ve had odd-brand toilet paper that was manufacured in Puerto Rico when the main brands have fallen off the map.
The supply disruption in toilet paper was due in part to the sudden shift from “industrial” TP to domestic TP. As folks were forced to stay home for two weeks to “flatten the curve”, their biological habits changed from work to home.
The logistics of the supply and distribution of TP for commercial use is a seperate chail. No giant rolls for home use, yes? Switching from one style of product to the other is a complicated retooling effort. Ramping up domestic production would also have logistic problems. (Surely the industry had years of data to schedule for expected future demand, and capacity was optimised for that.)
Reportedly ended up that way because of…. Wind gusts up to 40 knots. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM
I like this one. It’s funny.