Last Ships Stuck Due to Suez Canal Blockage Expected to Pass Through

By Staff, Agencies

The last ships stranded by the grounding of a giant container vessel in the Suez Canal should pass through the waterway on Saturday, according to the Suez Canal Authority [SCA].

More than 400 vessels were stranded in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea when the giant container ship Ever Given became wedged across the vital waterway on 23 March. The ship was freed on Monday.

Osama Rabie, the chairman of the SCA, said 85 ships were expected to pass through the canal from both sides on Saturday. They will include the last 61 of the 422 ships that were queuing when the container vessel was dislodged, thus ending the backlog of shipping that built up during the crisis.

International supply chains were thrown into disarray when the 400-meter Ever Given ran aground. Specialist rescue teams took almost a week to free it after extensive dredging and repeated tugging operations.

An SCA investigation began on Wednesday into what caused the vessel to run aground, Rabie told MBC Masr television on Friday.

“The investigation is going well and will take two more days, then we will announce the results,” he said.