Egypt’s Suez Canal blockage may pose delays to global shipments

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Egypt’s Suez Canal has been blocked by a massive container vessel, which ran aground the key waterway, and could cause some delays in global shipments of commodities.

The Panama-flagged container vessel Ever Given got stuck in the southern end of the canal while making a turn on Tuesday (5:40 GMT), according to vessel tracking websites.

At 03:25 GMT on Wednesday, the vessel was still stuck in the canal, which provides the shortest marine route between Europe and Asia, according to data from tracking website VesselFinders.

Several tugboats have been deployed to help shift the container ship, the data showed.

Ever Given is 400-metre long and 59-metre wide container ship with a total carrying capacity of around 199,489 deadweight tonnes.

The container ship “has now blocked off a lot of fully-laden tankers from traversing in either direction”, trade monitor website TankerTrackers said in a post on Twitter.

“Tankers carrying Saudi, Russian, Omani and US oil are waiting on both ends,” it said.

The Suez Canal and the Suez-Mediterranean Pipeline are strategic routes for Persian Gulf crude oil, petroleum products, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments to Europe and North America.

The canal is a critical chokepoint because of the large volumes of energy commodities that flow through it, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

It was not immediately clear how long it will take to free Ever Given from the spot.

“It is likely to cause delays for ships heading both ways and shipment through the canal will be badly affected by the bottlenecks,” a shipbroker told ICIS.

“I believe many cargoes taking this route are COA [contracts of affreightment] governed so maybe not so much impact [on spot]. But definitely [there will be] an impact for owner’s cost,” it said.

Ever Given, which is operated by Taiwan-based container transportation and shipping firm Evergreen Marine, is carrying containers bound for Rotterdam in the Netherlands from China.

“It is still too early to tell concretely [any impact on shipping], since accident has just occurred and recovery operations are not fully underway as yet,” another shipbroker said.

“But initial assessment is that there may be minimal near-term impact on gas/ref[inery] tanker supplies between Europe and Asia, as currently such traffic is not high to begin with,” he added.

Focus article by Nurluqman Suratman

Additional reporting by Joson Ng and Ai Teng Lim

Photo: Map of the Suez Canal (Source: Google Maps)