“Egypt’s Suez Canal water traffic” gets blocked as huge cargo ship turns sideways

A huge cargo ship has twisted sidelong in Egypt’s Suez Canal, blocking traffic in a critical East-West waterway for global shipping, according to satellite data entered Wednesday. Traffic on the narrow waterway crossing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula obstructed after the MV Ever Given, a Panama-flagged container vessel with an owner recorded in Japan, got fastened. It wasn’t instantly clear what made the Ever Given twist sideways in the channel. GAC, global shipping, and logistics company reported that Ever Given was experiencing “a blackout while transiting in a northerly direction,” without detailing.

The Ever Given’s front was touching the canal’s eastern flank, while its stern seemed stuck according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com. Numerous tug boats circled the ship, possibly trying to push it the right way, the data explained. Canal officials could not be quickly reached early Wednesday. The ship seemed to be stuck some 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southernly opening of the canal near the city of Suez.

An image shared on Instagram by a user on a different cargo ship appeared to show the Ever Given wedged over the canal. The ship in the picture matched other photographs of the ship and the encompassing region is shown in the image resembled the area where the ship became fastened. Cargo ships and oil tankers seemed to be lining up at the southern edge of the Suez Canal, expecting to be prepared to move through the waterway to the Mediterranean Sea. A United Nations database listed the Ever Gren as being owned by Shoei Kisen KK, a ship-leasing company based in Imabari, Japan. The company could not be immediately contacted for remark Wednesday. The ship had scheduled its destination as Rotterdam in the Netherlands earlier to getting stuck in the canal.

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Started in 1869, the Suez Canal gives a crucial connection for oil, natural gas, and cargo being transported from East to West. Around 10 % of the world’s business moves through the waterway and it remains one of Egypt’s top foreign currency obtainers. In 2015, the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi finished a major expansion of the canal, enabling it to hold the world’s largest vessels.