The cargo ship that has been stranded since last morning in the Suez Canal, in Egypt, has finally been refloated this Monday morning. Bad weather and heavy rains would be responsible for the ship “Glory”, with the flag of the Marshall Islands, being stranded in the middle of one of the main commercial routes in the world. The cargo ship ran aground near El Qantara, in the Egyptian state of Ismailia, service contractor Leth Agencies confirms.
Navigation in the canal already remained completely blocked for several days in March 2021 after the container ship ‘Ever Given’ -one of the largest ships in the world belonging to the Ever Green company- ran aground due to high tide, in an incident which had important repercussions for global maritime trade – around 90% of merchandise is transported by this route worldwide.
The ship “ran aground due to bad weather and heavy rain and several tugboats tried to unsuccessfully unravel it,” the sources added without specifying further details. Apparently, the boat transports grain from Ukraine to China. The data handled by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) give an idea of how strategic the channel is.
The canal is one of the main entry routes for Egypt
Nearly 10% of all seaborne oil trade and 8% of the world’s liquefied natural gas trade currently transit this 163-kilometre stretch of water that runs through northern Egypt in the narrowest part of the Sinai Peninsula. It is a key step, despite the fact that it does not reach the relevance of the Strait of Malacca or the Strait of Hormuz, considered the most important “oil artery” globally since more than 30% of the crude that moves through it passes through it. sea lanes all over the planet.
It is also the third source of foreign currency for Egypt after tourism. Thus, last year it would have reported income for the country worth 7.9 billion dollars. The authorities confirmed just a few days ago that this billing would be the highest in history for the Suez Canal, which would have registered the passage of more than 23,000 ships that carried 1.4 billion tons of cargo.
