WHAT IS THE LATEST ON THE EFFORTS TO DISLODGE THE EVER GIVEN? The giant cargo carrier blocking the Suez Canal was finally on the move Monday afternoon, nearly a week after it wedged sideways, threatening the world's global economy. Both ends of the boat had been freed and the ship was being pulled through the canal by tugboats. Earlier, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al Sissi said: "Egyptians have succeeded today in ending the crisis of the stranded ship in the Suez Canal.” Helped by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugboats managed to wrench the bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the canal's sandy bank. After hauling the fully laden 220,000-ton vessel over the canal bank, the salvage team was pulling the vessel toward the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south end of the canal, where the ship will undergo technical inspection, canal authorities said.
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WHAT IS IN THE CARGO THAT IS PILED UP IN THE SUEZ CANAL? Of all the millions of tons of cargo that's piled up in the Suez Canal, none is more delicate than the animals crammed into the hulls of several of the ships, Bloomberg reports. Data compiled indicate as many as 10 vessels stuck in and around the canal could be carrying livestock. While much of the cargo is commodity products such as oil that can be stored on ships for long periods, livestock need food and water, and such deliveries usually carry only enough for a few extra days. That could create a critical situation for ships to find feed supplies at a local port, or force them to turn around.
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WHAT ELSE AFFECTS US? Sweden's IKEA said it has 110 containers on the stricken Ever Given and other ships in the pile-up. The Van Rees Group, based in Rotterdam, said 80 containers of tea were trapped at sea on 15 vessels and said there could be "chaos" for the company as supplies dried up. Dave Hinton, owner of a timber company in northwest England, said he had a consignment of French oak stuck on a ship. The oak had been sent from France for reprocessing into veneered flooring in China, and was on its way back to a customer in Britain, Hinton said.
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WHAT EFFECT WILL THIS HAVE ON SUPPLY CHAINS? The blockage will delay a range of parts and raw materials for European products such as cotton from India for clothes, petroleum from the Middle East for plastics, and auto parts from China. The blockage will prevent empty shipping containers from being returned to Asia, adding to a container shortage caused by rising demand for consumer goods during the pandemic.
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WHAT ABOUT OIL SHIPMENTS? About 1.9 million barrels of oil a day go through the canal, according to shipping journal Lloyd's. That's about 7% of all seaborne oil. The closure could affect shipments of oil and natural gas from the Mideast to Europe. S&P Global Platts Analytics said about 1 million barrels of crude and 1.4 million barrels of gasoline and other refined products flow from the Middle East and Asia north through the canal to Europe on the average day, AP reports. | The 'MTM Savannah' oil and chemical tanker, left, and other cargo vessels wait to enter the Suez Canal in Suez, Egypt, on Sunday, March 28, 2021.
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WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE EVER GIVEN? The Ever Given, which is operated by the Evergreen Shipping line, is one of the world's largest container ships, about the length of the Empire State Building. Although the canal was originally engineered to handle much smaller vessels, its channels have been widened and deepened several times, most recently six years ago at a cost of more than $8 billion.
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HOW DID THE VESSEL GET STUCK? Cargo ships cross the narrow passageway one-by-one to avoid mishaps. Last Tuesday, March 23, 2021, a sandstorm reportedly hit the more 400 metre Ever Given, decreasing visibility and battering the ship with heavy winds. That disruption caused the ship to become wedged sideways across the canal. The exact details of and science behind what happened are still to be determined. But the head of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Osama Rabie, told reporters the accident may have been due to "technical or human errors", rather than the 40-knot winds. | Ships and boats are seen at the entrance of Suez Canal, which was blocked by stranded container ship Ever Given that ran aground, Egypt March 28, 2021.
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WHY IS THE SUEZ CANAL SO IMPORTANT? The 193km long canal is a vital international shipping passage which facilitates 10% of international trade. The passage facilitates direct shipping between Europe and Asia, eliminating the need to go around the southern tip of Africa.
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WHERE IS THE CANAL? The canal is in Egypt, connecting Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean via the southern Egyptian city of Suez on the Red Sea. The canal is the world's longest without locks, which connects bodies of water at differing altitudes. With no locks to interrupt traffic, the transit time from end to end averages about 13 to 15 hours, according to a description of the canal by GlobalSecurity.org.
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WHEN WAS THE SUEZ CANAL BUILT? Originally owned by French investors, the canal was conceived when Egypt was under the control of the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century. Construction began at the Port Said end in early 1859. Excavation took 10 years, and the project required an estimated 1.5 million workers. According to the Suez Canal Authority, the Egyptian government agency that operates the waterway, 20,000 peasants were drafted every 10 months to help construct the project. Many workers died of cholera and other diseases. An uproar in Egypt against the colonial powers of Britain and France slowed progress on the canal, and the final cost was roughly double the initial $50 million projected.
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WHO CONTROLS THE CANAL? The British controlled the canal through the first two World Wars, but withdrew forces there in 1956, effectively relinquishing authority to the Egyptian government led by President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
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WHAT WAS THE SUEZ CRISIS IN 1956 ABOUT? The crisis began in 1956 when Egypt's president nationalised the canal after the British had departed. He took other steps that were deemed security threats by Israel and its Western allies, leading to a military intervention by Israeli, British and French forces. The crisis briefly closed the canal and ended in early 1957 under an agreement supervised by the United Nations, which sent its first peacekeeping force to the area.
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WHAT HAPPENED IN 1967? Egypt closed the canal for nearly a decade after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, when the waterway was basically a front line between Israeli and Egyptian military forces. Fourteen cargo ships, which became known as the "Yellow Fleet," were trapped in the canal until it was reopened in 1975 by Nasser's successor, Anwar Sadat. A few accidental groundings of vessels have closed the canal since then. The most notable, until last week, was a three-day shutdown in 2004 when a Russian oil tanker ran aground.
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HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO CLEAR THE BACKLOG? Egyptian authorities said once the container ship blocking the Suez Canal is refloated it will take three and a half days to clear a traffic jam of hundreds of vessels. Shipping group Maersk said the disruptions caused by the stranding could take weeks and possibly months to clear. Maersk has three vessels stuck in the canal and another 29 waiting to enter, it said, adding that it had so far rerouted 15 vessels to sail south of Africa instead.
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IS THERE AN ALTERNATIVE ROUTE FOR SHIPS? Rerouting to avoid the blocked Suez Canal isn’t just costly and time-consuming, it is also dangerous. Skirting southern Africa's Cape of Good Hope is one of the world's most treacherous passages, littered with hundreds of wrecks and sometimes called "the Cape of Storms" and "the Graveyard of Ships." So many wrecks lie off the Cape of Good Hope that they have enhanced the area as a tourism destination. While remnants of many shipwrecks have been discovered there, others have remained a mystery.
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HOW MUCH IS THE SUEZ MISHAP GOING TO COST? The total cost of the Suez Canal accident is hard to calculate, and analysts say much will depend on how long it takes to sort out. At present, 400 ships are stuck at either end of shipping lane with several billion dollars worth of goods on board. The total value of goods that are now blocked or will have to be shipped along an alternative route varies according to how it is estimated. Lloyd's List, a British maritime shipping publication, says daily traffic in both directions is worth around $9.6 billion.
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