Suez Canal: Why is freeing the stranded ship so complicated? An expert speaks.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

Suez Canal: Why is freeing the stranded ship so complicated?
•Mar 27, 2021
DW News

Experts are warning it could take weeks to dislodge a huge container ship blocking Egypt's Suez canal. A fresh attempt today to refloat the vessel was not successful. Around 30 percent of the world’s shipping container volume transits through the canal DAILY. More than a hundred and fifty ships are now backed up, waiting to enter the waterway. The Suez Canal opens up a seven thousand kilometer route from Asia to Europe. The only alternative route - around the Horn of Africa - is much longer, but many ships are now opting for that detour. A prolonged closure of the Suez will almost certainly impact global trade, which has already been hit hard by the pandemic.The ship plugging the chokepoint that funnels 30 percent of the global seaborne trade.400 meters long and weighing more than 200,000 tons, the "Ever Given" has become an immovable barrier shutting down Egypt's Suez Canal. With around 10 billion dollars in trade at stake every day, diggers, tugboats, dredgers and a team of Dutch ship salvagers are working day and night to dislodge the vessel. More than 200 ships are caught in the world's longest maritime traffic jam. Some of them are now rerouting their journey around the Cape of Good Hope, a trip almost three times as long. The fear is that consumers will be noticing the delays before long.With the clock ticking, the US is among a growing list of countries offering help to refloat the Ever Given.DW spoke with maritime expert Dr. Sal Mercogliano about how the ship became lodged and what makes freeing it so complicated.

Good to find this interview with a maritime expert. I was not aware it's grounded on both ends with the middle of the vessel floating and clear, a situation which presents extreme dangers while trying to free the ship.

Hat tip to DW........

[UpInArms]

1. Their premise of

Bigger faster cheaper better violates logic

You can have bigger and faster, but not cheaper and better

Or you can have cheaper and better, but only one of bigger or faster

Or you can have bigger and cheaper and better, but not faster

You only get to have two of the things, sacrificing the third

[Pobeka]

2. Who pays for delayed cargo on all ships blocked? Anyone know?

Does Evergreen eat the bill for not only the cargo delay on their on ship, but for all other ships waiting to proceed through the canal, or have to go around the tip of Africa instead?

I suspect the other ships have to pay for their own losses, but I hear maritime law can be weird.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

3. As always, we consumers will ultimately pay via inflation (socializing the losses).

There will likely be loads of lawsuits, particularly over perishables and materials for just-in-time manufacturing.

Surely these carriers have insurance covering such losses since they suffer frequent delays from breakdowns, military conflicts and bad weather for example.

Hopefully, an expert here will chime in and teach us.....

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Weirder than you can imagine. Basically, everyone pays. They can all sue the vessel "in rem" for...

their losses, but who knows what they will get.

Something called "general average" will probably be called. It's common in a stranding and goes back to the Phoenicians when one of their ships was in danger of sinking and they threw off the heaviest cargo. Those cargo owners complained, and so all cargo owners, plus the vessel itself, pitched in to reimburse them. Nowadays, it involves platoons of lawyers and average adjusters.

[2naSalit]

5. See also...

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Sounds dicey at best.