A container ship stranded in the canal’s navigational course on Sunday afternoon was successfully refloated within four hours, Suez Canal Authority spokesperson George Safwat announced.
During a telephone interview with Ahmed Moussa, presenter of the “On My Responsibility” program broadcast on Sada al-Balad channel, Safwat said that the movement of ships across the Suez Canal was not impacted due to the stranding.
He explained that the New Suez Canal allowed the facilitation of navigation after the ship ran aground in the old canal.
The stranded ship was coming from Malaysia and heading to Portugal, he explained, and ran aground at the kilometer 78 mark. It held a tonnage of 163,000 tons of goods, measured 199 meters, and the matter was dealt with swiftly.
He explained that four tugboats were deployed and they succeeded in floating it at 7:30 pm.
The ship took its normal course, in less than four hours, which he said was a short time.
Safwat also stressed that the Malaysian shipped stranded in an entirely different area to where the Evergreen ship ran aground.
On the causes of the stranding, Safwat attributed it to complex factors between bad weather or a technical and engineering problem in the ship itself.
There were eight ships behind the stranded ship, he said, which were secured with tugboats, and have all completed their way.
He added that without the New Suez Canal, navigation would have been disrupted from the southern and northern directions in the Suez Canal.
The canal is one of the most important trade passages in the world, and any prolonged blockage would result in massive consequences for the global supply chain.
