Post-Lockage: 100s of Ships Pass The Suez Canal

Published April 4th, 2021 - 07:14 GMT

Egyptian coast guards patrol as a ship navigates the Suez Canal on March 30, 2021, a day after a cargo vessel was dislodged from its banks. Egyptian authorities have presented the freeing of the megaship, which was stuck for nearly a week and caused a 425- ship tailback to the north and south, as a major vindication of the country's engineering and salvage capabilities. Tarek WAJEH / AFP

A backlog of hundreds of ships have finally passed through Egypt's Suez Canal days after a grounded 200,000-pound container was freed from the shoreline, local officials said Saturday.

The Suez Canal Authority said some 85 ships were expected to pass through the canal in both directions Saturday, including the last 61 that had been waiting for the Ever Given, which was dislodged Monday.

A piece of celestial good luck likely made it easier for engineers to successfully refloat the giant container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week. https://t.co/5OGRLIUIfa
— CNN (@CNN) April 4, 2021

"All waiting ships crossed the shipping course today," Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, chairman of the SCA, said.

About 422 ships queued up, waiting to pass through the vital waterway after the Panama-flagged Ever Given got jammed up diagonally across the southern part of the canal during a sandstorm on March 23.

The disruption to the world's supply chain may take months to resolve, experts predict.

With the blockage, some ships were forced to take an alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope, an additional 3,100 miles. The Suez Canal is the shortest shipping route between Asia and Europe and connects the Mediterranean and Red seas.