Suez Canal halts all traffic as bid to refloat grounded ship hits trouble

Suez Canal halts all traffic as bid to refloat grounded ship hits trouble

CAIRO--The owners of a giant container vessel blocking the Suez Canal said Thursday 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) 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.

In a sign of the global turmoil the blockage has caused, the ship's Japanese owner even offered a written apology Thursday for the incident as well.

“We are determined to keep on working hard to resolve this situation as soon as possible,” Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. said. “We would like to apologize to all parties affected by this incident, including the ships travelling and planning