Suez Canal: Owner of cargo ship blocking waterway apologises - BBC News

The Japanese owner of the giant cargo ship that has been blocking Egypt's Suez Canal since Tuesday has apologised for the disruption to global trade.

Shoei Kisen Kaisha said shifting the Ever Given was proving "extremely difficult", but that it was "working hard to resolve the situation".

The 400m-long (1,300ft) vessel became wedged across the canal after being blown off course by high winds.

At least 150 ships are now waiting to pass through the vital waterway.

About 12% of global trade passes through the 193km-long (120-mile) canal, which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and provides the shortest sea link between Asia and Europe.

In pictures: Container ship blocks Egypt's Suez Canal

A flotilla of eight tug boats resumed efforts to dislodge the Ever Given at high tide on Thursday morning after stopping overnight, Egyptian officials said.

The head of a specialist salvage company assisting the operation warned that it could take weeks to move the boat and that containers might have to be lifted off to lighten its load.

Graphic showing the blockage in the Suez Canal

"We can't exclude it might take weeks, depending on the situation," Peter Berdowski, the CEO of Boskalis, told a Dutch TV station.

"It is like an enormous beached whale. It's an enormous weight on the sand," he added. "We might have to work with a combination of reducing the weight by removing containers, oil and water from the ship, tug boats and dredging of sand."

The Ever Given, a 200,000 tonne ship registered in Panama and operated by Taiwanese transport company Evergreen Marine, was bound for the port city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands from China and was passing northwards through the canal on its way to the Mediterranean via the Red Sea.

It ran aground and became lodged sideways across the waterway at about 07:40 local time (05:40 GMT) on Tuesday.

Shoei Kisen Kaisha said the Ever Given's 25-member crew, who are all Indian nationals, were safe and that no oil leaks had been detected.

In 2017, a Japanese container vessel blocked the canal after it ran aground following reported mechanical issues. The Egyptian authorities deployed tug boats and the ship was refloated within hours.