The MV Ever Given, a Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, got stuck Tuesday, March 23, in a single-lane stretch of the canal. In the time since, authorities have been unable to unstick the vessel and traffic through the canal — valued at over $9 billion a day — has been halted, further disrupting a global shipping network already strained by the coronavirus pandemic.
The grounding of the Ever Given has graphically shown the world, once again, how vital the maritime supply chain is, not just to those receiving the goods from a particular vessel, but to everyone — and how easily a disruption can occur that affects us all.
The tugboats will nudge the quarter-mile-long Ever Given as dredgers continue to vacuum up sand from underneath the vessel and mud caked to its port side.
If the blockage persists, the disruption could ripple through the global economy, affecting the flow of oil, chemicals, apparel, iron ore and manufactured goods.
The effects are likely to be felt around the world, but the trade disruptions will less directly impact the United States, which receives most shipments from Asia on the West Coast.
In this photo released by the Suez Canal Authority, tug boats and diggers work to free the Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned Ever Given, which is lodged across the Suez Canal, Sunday, March 28, 2021. Two additional tugboats are speeding to canal to aid efforts to free the skyscraper-sized container ship wedged for days across the crucial waterway. That's even as major shippers increasingly divert their boats out of fear the vessel may take even longer to free. Suez Canal Authority via AP
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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