Hopes rise of ending Suez Canal blockage in days

Hopes rise of ending Suez Canal blockage in days

CAIRO (AFP) - Hopes rose on Saturday that a mega-ship blocking Egypt’s Suez Canal could be refloated within days, even as the crisis forced companies to consider re-routing vessels around the southern tip of Africa.

The president of Shoei Kisen -- the Japanese firm which owns the giant container vessel -- said it could be freed from the canal bed later Saturday, while the parent company of the Dutch salvage firm in charge of the operation eyed a target of early next week.

Millions of dollars are at stake. Billions of dollars of cargo are now stalled at either end of the vital shipping lane between Asia and Europe, with their owners mulling whether to wait it out or take the longer and more expensive route around the Cape of Good Hope at the cost of up to 12 additional days at sea.

The MV Ever Given, which is longer than four football fields, has been wedged diagonally across the span of the canal since Tuesday, blocking the waterway in both directions.

At a press conference in Japan Friday, Shoei Kisen president Yukito Higaki told local media there were no signs of damage to its engines and various instruments.

"The ship is not taking water. There is no problem with its rudders and propellers. Once it refloats, it should be able to operate," Higaki said, according to the Asahi Shimbun.

The company aims to free the ship "tomorrow night Japan time", he added, the Nikkei news agency said.

"We are continuing work to remove sediment as of now, with additional dredging tools."

In the Netherlands, the executive director of Royal Boskalis, parent company of Smit Salvage, set a less demanding target.

"With the ships we’ll have in place by then, the earth we’ve managed to dredge, and the high tide, let’s hope that’ll be enough to budge the ship at the start of next week," Peter Berdowski told a public television chat-show late Friday.

"We are already in the process of installing a crane on land. That will allow us to eventually remove all the containers from the foredeck, which could involve hundreds of containers."

The blockage has caused a huge traffic jam of more than 200 ships at both ends of the 193-kilometre (120-mile) long canal and major delays in the delivery of oil and other products.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) -- the ship’s technical manager -- said Friday that an attempt to refloat the vessel had failed.

"The focus is now on dredging to remove sand and mud from around the port side of the vessel’s bow," the firm said.

Salvage crews worked through the night, using a large dredging machine under floodlights.