The high tide period begins on Sunday night, and the crews are thus facing some very important hours.
– Sunday will be very critical, says a pilot associated with the Egyptian Channel Authority.
A large number of tugboats work at the ship, in addition to dredgers that remove sand and mud. Two more tugboats are on their way to the site.
Several salvage companies are participating in the work, among them Dutch Smit Salvage.
Moved
The crews managed to move on the grounded ship on Saturday. Ever Given moved 30 degrees, according to the Channel Authority’s head Osama Rabie. He said there was hope of getting the ship released on Sunday.
Other experts are more pessimistic and express concern about what will happen if the ship does not come loose now. The next period of high tide is only in a couple of weeks, according to Plamen Natzkoff in the company VesselsValue.
The pilot who is associated with the Channel Authority – and who does not want to be named – tells the news agency AP that Sunday will decide the next step in the work.
He believes the next phase will involve removing at least part of the ship’s cargo. It can potentially take a long time.
Rabie says he still hopes to get the ship loose without having to remove the cargo. Ever Green had around 20,000 containers on board when it grounded, and the Egyptian president has ordered the Channel Authority to prepare for all possible alternatives.
On Sunday, tugboats and dredgers worked to free the Japanese-owned ship that sails under the Panamanian flag, and have blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week. Photo: The Egyptian Channel Authority / AP / NTB
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Sailing around Africa
The editor Richard Meade in the industry magazine Lloyd’s List refers to sources with knowledge of the salvage operation who believe it will be possible to move the ship within one or two days.
Nevertheless, several shipping companies have apparently given up hope of a solution soon. Instead, they are working to redirect ships to the Cape of Good Hope so that they can sail around Africa.
An increasing number of companies have now chosen this solution, Lloyd’s List reports on Sunday. The French company CMA-CGM states that two of their vessels will travel around Africa on their way to Asia.
The detour around Africa involves around two weeks extra travel time and the combustion of over 800 tonnes of extra fuel for a large oil tanker.
Hundreds of ships
Ever Given is one of the world’s largest container ships and the size of a skyscraper that has been overturned. Since Tuesday, the ship has been standing across the Suez Canal. Several hundred ships are waiting to get through the canal.
On a normal day, around 50 ships pass the Suez Canal. The goods they carry with them make up on average more than 10 per cent of world trade. The canal is especially important for oil on its way from the Middle East.
The German insurance company Allianz has estimated that the cost of blocking the canal is between NOK 50 and 90 billion per day.
Strong wind
On Saturday, the head of the Channel Authority in Egypt said that strong winds were not “the only reason” for Ever Given ground support, as was first claimed. The investigation is still ongoing, but it may have been technical or human failure that caused the huge ship to get stuck, according to Rabie.
Bernard Schulte Shipmanagemet has the technical responsibility for Ever Given. The company maintains that their initial investigations preclude that failure of the mechanics or engine was the cause of the grounding.
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