Suez Canal traffic resumes as stuck Ever Given container ship afloat

The massive cargo ship Ever Given, which has blocked the crucial Suez Canal for nearly a week, has finally been freed, resuming traffic across the major East-West shipping route, AFP reported quoting officials on Monday. 

The ship, nearly as long as New York’s Empire State Building is high, was wedged in the sandy banks along the canal during a sandstorm last Tuesday, causing a major blockage of huundreds of ships on both sides of the canal. 

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“Admiral Osama Rabie, head of the Suez Canal Authority, has announced the resumption of shipping traffic in the Suez Canal,” the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said in a statement, shortly after shipping sites had showed it to have once more diagonally blocked the waterway.

Earlier today, authorities said they used tug boats to steer the ship in the right direction.

World oil prices eased on the news of the reopening of the waterway that connects the Mediterranean and Red Sea and through which more than 10 percent of world trade passes.

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The ship blocked an estimated $9.6 billion worth of cargo each day from Asia and Europe, while costing Egypt around $12 to $14 million in revenue from the canal each day. 

While the ship’s operator said that the vessal was caught in a gale-force duststorm – while en route from Yantain in China to Amsterdam’s port city of Rotterdam – the head of the Suez Canal Authority, Admiral Osama Rabie, said the accident may have been due to “technical or human errors“, rather than 40-knot winds.