The last ships stranded due to the Suez Canal blockade passed the important waterway on Saturday 3 April. The Egyptian state company Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has announced this. The Suez Canal was open for traffic again since Monday after the huge container ship Ever Given was pulled loose.
Shipping traffic through the important shipping lane had been suspended for almost a week when the ship ran into a sandstorm and ended up blocking the canal. When the Ever Given was pulled free, 422 ships were waiting for their turn to pass through the Suez Canal. The last 62 of them continued their journey on Saturday.
Port of Rotterdam expects busy week
The Port of Rotterdam Authority expects extra traffic of sea-going vessels at the end of the week. Normally, the port receives an average of eighty sea-going vessels per day. This will temporarily increase by about ten per cent every day from about Wednesday onwards, according to a spokesperson.
Also read: ‘Crew of container ship Ever Given may be detained’
Accident investigation soon completed
The investigation into the grounding of the Ever Given will be completed within two days, according to the SCA, after which the results will be made public. Top executive Osama Rabie estimated earlier that Egypt had suffered at least USD one billion in damage as a result of the blockade of the Suez Canal.
The 193-kilometre waterway between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean accounts for about twelve per cent of global goods trade. Normally, almost USD ten billion worth of goods are transported through the Suez Canal every day.
Also read: Container ship Ever Given grounding: Could it happen again?
Source: ANP
Picture by the Suez Canal Authority.
