Salvage teams from the Netherlands and Japan will devise a plan to refloat the giant container ship, Ever Given, blocking the Suez Canal since March 24.
The Panama-flagged Ever Given got grounded and stuck near the Red Sea entrance, blocking traffic in the Suez canal, on March 24.
The vessel, which is owned by Japan’s Shoei Kisen, had left from from Yantian, China, heading to Rotterdam, when the incident took place.
As a result of the blockage, a large number of ships is waiting on either side of the waterway, to pass through the canal. In fact, as Bloomberg reports, at the day of the incident, more than 100 ships were waiting for their turn, to sail through the Suez Canal.
Now, Reuters reports that Smit Salvage and Japan’s Nippon Salvage had been appointed to work alongside its captain and the Suez Canal Authority in order to refloat the ship.
More specifically, Evergreen informed that it coordinate with the shipowner and Suez Canal Authority to deal with the situation, and ensure the resumption of the voyage as soon as possible.
What is more, as the vessel is chartered, the responsibility for the expense incurred in the recovery operatio, third party liability and the cost of repair is the owner’s.
In addition, with the temporary blockage of the Suez Canal and the build-up of congestion, there is assessed to be a heightened risk to vessels within the lower Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, says Dryad Global.
The primary risk within the area remains specific to those vessels connected to Saudi Arabia, the US, Israel, Indonesia, and Iran. However, all vessels should consider adopting a heightened posture of alertness if forced to remain static within the Red Sea, or Gulf of Aden.
