Daily US Times: The Suez Canal blockage has cost the world massively. The huge container ship that has been stuck in the Canal since Tuesday has finally been freed.
Peter Berdowski, chief executive of Dutch salvage company Boskalis, said the giant container ship had been refloated at 15:05 (13:05 GMT) on Monday, “thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again”.
The Ever Given is 400m-long and weighs 200,000 tonnes, with a maximum capacity of 20,000 containers. The ship, which is one of the biggest in the world, currently carrying 18,300 containers.
About 12% of global trade, roughly 8% of liquefied natural gas, and around one million barrels of oil pass through the Canal each day.
Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chairman Osama Rabie said on Saturday that the Canal’s revenues were taking a $14m-$15m hit for each day of the Suez Canal blockage.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, trade passing through the Canal contributed to 2% of Egypt’s GDP, according to Moody’s.
Separately, data from Lloyd’s List showed the mega container ship was holding up an estimated $9.6bn of trade along the waterway each day. That equates to $400 million and 3.3 million tonnes of cargo an hour, or $6.7 million a minute.
Looking at the bigger picture, on Friday, German insurer Allianz said that its analysis showed the Suez Canal blockage could reduce annual trade growth by 0.2 to 0.4 percentage points and could cost global trade between $6bn to $10bn a week and.
You may read: Suez Canal: Ever Given container ship finally freed
