Rescue teams have managed to free the rudder and propellers of Ever Given, the container ship stranded in the Suez Canal, reported this Sunday one of the companies that operates in the pass, while the managing authority of the seaway indicated that they continue to dredge land to free the hull.
On the night from Saturday to Sunday, a new attempt to refloat the ship failed taking advantage of the high tide, but “this morning it was reported that the rudder and propellers were released,” the maritime services firm Gulf Agency Company indicated on its website. (GAC), based in Dubai and operating on the channel.
However, GAC, which cited the Suez Canal Authority, it assured that “The bow of the ship is still sunk on the shore of the canal” and that there had been a “Slight lateral movement”.
For its part, the Canal Authority issued a statement in which it did not refer to these advances and pointed out that, according to its boss, Osama Rabie, 27,000 cubic meters of sand had already been dredged from the part of the shore where it is stranded. the bow of the ship, reaching a depth of 18 meters.
Rabie stated that work would continue to unblock the Ever Giben 24 hours a day and that “dredging work during the day and traction maneuvers of the Ever Giben by the tugs would be carried out at times compatible with tidal conditions.”
According to Rabie, 12 tugboats are participating in the attempts to refloat the ship, a gigantic container of 400 meters in length and a load capacity of 224,000 tons, and that another two were scheduled to arrive.
Both GAC and Leth Agencies, another firm specialized in logistics services in channels and straits, assured that around 4:00 p.m. local time (14:00 GMT) a new attempt was planned to move the ship by the tugs, coinciding with the rise of the tide.
Meanwhile, ships continue to accumulate at the two entrances to the canal, both in the Red Sea and in the Mediterranean, awaiting unblocking and, although some ships have already diverted their routes to bypass Africa, according to Lefh Agencies, in the Sunday morning they already numbered 327.
This figure included 134 at Port Said on the Mediterranean, 151 at Suez on the Red Sea, and 42 at the Great Lake in the middle section of the canal.
The Suez Canal Authority had assured on Friday that by then the work to unblock the Ever Given had advanced 87%, although on Saturday at a press conference Rabie admitted that he could not estimate when this passage through which the river passes would be released. 10% of world trade and 25% of freight containers.