Egyptian Chronicles: Ever Given Saga Continues : Tugging against time “Latest Suez canal crisis updates”

Up till now Gigantic Ever Given container ship is blocking not only Egypt’s Suez canal but also at least 10% of the world trade.

So far on Saturday evening the attempts to tug Ever Given continued using the high tide with 14 tugboats joining forces.

There has been no official statement from the Suez Canal Authority “SCA” about the progress of this attempt but some believe Saturday night may not be our lucky night.

The latest photo of Ever Given Saturday evening

The Chairman of the SCA Vice Admiral Osama Rabea held a press conference Saturday afternoon to share with the media and the world the latest developments concerning the big ship.

Here are the most important points Rabea said.

321 vessels are currently stuck at the Suez canal.
It will take 48 hours after “unblocking the canal” for those vessels to leave the canal.
Currently, those vessels are receiving all needed logistics and support from SCA.
The wind and the dust storm are not the main cause the vessel to run aground as it was claimed earlier
The cause of this disaster is still being investigated.
Before this disaster, the SCA used to achieve USD 12 million as revenue on a daily basis.
It is unclear how much time it will take to solve this problem but the SCA is working day and night.
No casualties or pollution have been caused by Ever Given.
He thanked the countries that offered help including the United States, China and UAE.

He did not mention the Turkish offer to send help which was offered on Friday.

It is worth mentioning that Egypt or rather the SCA welcomed the assistance offered by the United States on Friday.

On the same day, the US announced that it was planning to send an assessment team to help with the stuck container ship.

Both the White House and US President Joe Biden himself spoke about the matter.

Members of the Dutch SMIT Salvage also participated in the press conference that they go to the scenario to lightening up the ship but it is difficult how much time it will take.

Osama Rabie thanked in the presser the Minister of Health but he did not reveal exactly his role.

Now the Egyptian government revealed that the Ministry of Agriculture is giving help and support sending three teams of veterinarians to vessels carrying livestock heading from Europe to Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

The stuck ships from Space

The Syrian government of Al-Assad has started to ration fuel as the shipments it should receive are delayed in the Suez canal.

Al-Assad regime did not mention the source of the fuel.

According to Bloomberg data, most of the stuck ships are bulk carriers, container ships, chemical/oil products tankers and general cargo ships.

Source : Bloomberg

On Friday, the Dutch SMIT Salvage team told Reuters that the Suez canal’s incident was the most difficult thing they have faced in 180 years.

On the same day, Shoei Kisen Company Chairman Yukito Higaki held a press conference in Tokyo to apologize to the world for the trouble caused by his ship.

عبر مؤتمر صحفي أقيم اليوم ، قدمت الشركة #اليابانية "شوي كيسن كي كي" المالكة للسفينة الجانحة في قناة السويس اعتذارها أمام وسائل الإعلام

من المتوقع أن تواجه الشركة مطالبات بملايين الدولارات من قناة السويس ذاتها بسبب فقد الإيرادات ومن السفن التي تعذر مرورها أو تلفت سلعها pic.twitter.com/fN0Q0FVCpn
— فــارس اليابان 騎士 (@farisjpn) March 26, 2021

He also added that the company aimed to free the ship and refloat it by Saturday night.

I am afraid that did not happen.

I do not have to guess but Higaki may go bankrupt if he does not have a plan “B”

In the past 48 hours, Egyptians were sharing this old news from Germany from February when “Ever Given” caused trouble and collided with a ferry at Hamburg’s Blankenese.

Nach der Kollision des Containerschiffs "Ever Given" mit einer Fähre in Hamburg-Blankenese ist der Sachschaden groß. Die Polizei ermittelt nun gegen den Kapitän des Frachters. #Blankenese #EverGiven #Elbe @ndr pic.twitter.com/1T0WKdHlhQ
— Blankeneser Bürger-Verein e.V. (@BBVeV) February 11, 2019

Now to the fun part that came out of this crisis.

My 11 yo son came up w/ some genuine alternative solutions to the #SuezCanal 2021 crisis
He asked to share them w/ y'all #Suezblocked #Suez #Evergreenship #السويس pic.twitter.com/wfD6yXKjgi
— Mourad Diouri | مراد الديوري (@e_arabic) March 27, 2021