Crisis-hit Suez Canal suspends traffic

Crisis-hit Suez Canal suspends traffic

CAIRO: The owners of a giant container vessel blocking the Suez Canal said yesterday they were facing "extreme difficulty“ refloating it, prompting Egypt to suspend navigation through one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said it was trying to refloat the Panama-flagged MV Ever Given, a 400-metre (1,300-foot) long vessel which veered off course and ran aground in a sandstorm on Tuesday. Satellite pictures released by Planet Labs Inc show the 59-metre wide container ship wedged diagonally across the entire canal. Japanese ship-leasing firm Shoei Kisen Kaisha said it owned the giant vessel and was facing "extreme difficulty“ trying to refloat it.

"In co-operation with local authorities and Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, a vessel management company, we are trying to refloat (the ship), but we are facing extreme difficulty,“ Shoei Kisen Kaisha said in a statement on its website. "We sincerely apologize for causing a great deal of worry to ships in the Suez Canal and those planning to go through the canal.“ As shipping specialists warned it could take days or even weeks to budge the vessel, the Suez Canal Authority announced it was "temporarily suspending navigation“.

Maritime sources said yesterday that a new dredger had been