General Chat

One of the world's largest container ships has blocked one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, threatening 'catastrophic' delays to global supply chains with workers now in a desperate race against time to free her.

The 1,312ft-long, 175ft-wide, 200,000-ton MV Ever Given drifted across the entire width of the Suez Canal - in Egypt - around 7.40am Tuesday and became wedged with her bow out of the water against the eastern wall and her stern wedged against the western one.

It is not clear exactly how the accident happened - GAC, a shipping firm, said the Ever Given suffered a 'blackout', meaning it lost power and steering before becoming stuck; but a spokesman for Evergreen, the company which owns the ship, said a freak gust of wind blew the vessel off course, causing it to get stuck and lose power.

Whoops! :-D

Apparently, there's a limit to the size of container ship that can use the Canal - and this one is bigger than the maximum recommended size.

There'll be hell to pay.

Evergreen, based in Taiwan, is one of the larger transport companies in the world. I remember reading about it in the 80s. Not only shipping either.

If they have contracts to fulfill or if others threaten to sue because their contracts can't be fulfilled, we may well see our imports arrive via their planes - but not without a fight, I suspect as you don't get to the top by being soft!

Ooh, I've just checked and I can't find the company's airline operation. I wonder if that part of the business has closed. Used to be big EVERGREEN lettering in green on a white background - all cargo planes of course.

The good news is though that there won’t be a dozen cruise ships stuck in the traffic jam. :-D

Just looked at the pics and it is certainly in an awkward position. It is carrying a huge load too. Although tugs are trying to float it, I wonder whether they will end up having to remove some of the land in order to free it?

names :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

Maybe they will have to lighten it somehow by offloading some stuff???

Wonder if the Med is going to be one large parking area :-S

They are trying to dig it out. They would need massive cranes to remove the containers as the ship is so tall. I can’t see many of them being available in the vicinity

That is true Linda.

Apparantly there is a parallel channel which ships are being diverted into. It will take longer, but much better than being stuck for days.

JoyLouise, the airline is now called Eva Air.

Thanks Kense.

I don’t think the Solent was as blocked as the Suez Canal.

Bramble Bank (where the ship RTR mentions got stuck in 2014) is a well known sandbar in the Solent, where an annual cricket match is played.
Any ship stuck there is unlikely to cause a tailback, as no ships should be near it!

It's already having an impact on oil prices :-S

Or is someone jumping on the bandwagon in anticipation of a short-lived shortage where you are Allan?

I wouldn't put it past any of them. All it would need is for someone to have spotted a BP tanker stuck in the queue. :-0

Watch this space ;-)

Apparently, the ship made an 'interesting' "distinctly phallic route" in the hours before being blown off course ! :-D :-D :-D

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/suez-canal-stuck-cargo-ship-route_uk_605c6e83c5b67593e055f0e3

Cartoon in the Mirror this morning. Two speech bubbles, one each end of the ship, one saying "To you." and the other "To me".