Suez Canal crisis: All we know about the blockage in the world’s largest man-made canal

The MV Ever Given, a giant container ship, almost as long as New York’s Empire State Building is high, got stuck during a sandstorm Tuesday in Egypt’s Suez Canal, causing a traffic jam of cargo ships through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The giant container has no signs of damage to its engines and various instruments, said the owner of the ship, Shoei Kisen. Kisen said the ship could be refloated as early as Saturday as the crisis forced companies to re-route services.

While we wait for the container ship to be dislodged, here are 10 things that we know so far:

-The 400-metre long megaship (1,300-foot), 200,000-tonne MV Ever Given, veered off course in the canal when a duststorm hit Egypt’s Sinai Desert and much of the Middle East.

-The 59-metre (195-foot) wide Taiwan-run, Panama-flagged vessel got stuck at about 0540 GMT near the southern end of the canal. It diagonally blocked the man-made waterway between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

-Ship operator Evergreen Marine Corp of Taiwan said the vessel “ran aground after a suspected gust of wind hit it”. It was en route from Yantian, China to the Dutch port of Rotterdam.

-The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said the accident was “mainly due to the lack of visibility due to the weather conditions when winds reached 40 knots, which affected the control” of the ship.

-The 25 crew are unhurt, the hull and cargo undamaged, and there is no oil leak, said the vessel’s managers, Singapore-based Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM). Egyptian tug boats, dredgers and bulldozers have been trying to free the enormous ship.

-The megaship has blocked the shipping artery through which more than 10% of global maritime trade passes, much of it oil and grains.

-The Suez Canal, opened in 1869 and widened since, is a crucial shortcut between Asia and Europe that saves ships from having to navigate around Africa.

-As a result of the accident, more than 100 vessels are forced to wait at either end of the canal or midway, at Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, says canal service provider Leth Agencies.

-The canal authority has said between 15,000 and 20,000 cubic metres of sand would have to be removed in order to reach a depth of 12-16 metres and refloat the ship.

-Crews are working through the night, using a large dredging machine under floodlights.

-But the vessel with gross tonnage of 219,000 and deadweight of 199,000 is yet to budge.