Suez Canal currently blocked (update - unblocked!)

Well, it seems that there would be a surge of interests to other, less popular sea routes - like Sevmorput - to divercify the global logistic.
 
Dilandu said:
Well, it seems that there would be a surge of interests to other, less popular sea routes - like Sevmorput - to divercify the global logistic.
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Though on at least some of those routes, there be Pirates! The international community is still learning quite a bitter lesson about the perils of going soft on piracy...

In other news:
www.telegraph.co.uk

Block-busters: How the ship stuck in the Suez Canal will be moved ... and how long it will take

Experts are working on three ways to dislodge the Ever Given after it ran aground, blocking one of globe's most important trading routes
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk
 
This incident might push Saudi Arabia and Egypt to revive the Red Sea bridge project near the Gulf of Aqaba, so a cargo train could travel from the Arabian Gulf states through Saudi Arabia over that bridge to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and then up north to the Mediterranean Sea, Israel and Europe - or westwards towards North Africa (Atlantic Coast).
 
galgot said:
Seems to be a pharaonic work to move this ship.


I'm out...
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Well it's time for Cléopatre to call Obélix...

20.jpg
 
Dilandu said:
TomS said:
They are looking to lighten the ship by removing ballast
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Arent they worried it may affect stability? Would be kinda awkward, if it flip...
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I don't think this is a major concern, since the ship would not actually get underway once they deballast. They would just be turning her under control of a bunch of tugs. Once back in the channel, they could reballast if needed.

Grey Havoc said:
www.politico.com

U.S. Navy offers to help clear cargo ship from Suez Canal

The blockage is believed to be costing the global economy about $400 million per hour.
www.politico.com www.politico.com
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The one major asset they might benefit from would be one or two of the T-ACS container crane ships. A bunch of cranes on a ship already configured specifically for picking containers and shifting them to a barge or pontoon causeway could be useful if they do need to unload EVER GIVEN.
 
I think there are several US ships at Diego Garcia specifically designed for that, if they are sufficiently tall.
 
fightingirish said:
This incident might push Saudi Arabia and Egypt to revive the Red Sea bridge project near the Gulf of Aqaba, so a cargo train could travel from the Arabian Gulf states through Saudi Arabia over that bridge to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt and then up north to the Mediterranean Sea, Israel and Europe - or westwards towards North Africa (Atlantic Coast).
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Hopefully it doesn't take them that long to get this ship unstuck :D
 
The Times Saturday March 27th, 2021

Don't bother with Suez ... the wine's better in Cape Town

South Africa

Jane Flanagan Cape Town

Cape Town's mayor is promising a five-star welcome to ships which change their course from
the jam at the Suez Canal to go around the Cape of Good Hope.

"Why should they sit in a queue when you can come and spend a couple of days replenishing
in the world's most beautiful city?" Alan Winde pondered.

The shipping lane could be blocked for weeks after the 200,000-tonne Ever Green, one of the
world's largest container ships, ran aground on Tuesday. The stricken vessel's sister ship Ever Greet
is already making for Cape Town, satellite data revealed.

Winde has instructed his officials to "get on it" and make sure that ships making a detour south are
looked after, even if the route around the cape adds up to 12 days to a typical sea passage from
Asia to Europe.

He said: "We can resupply by boat by helicopter or the crew can pull in to get the deals of the century
at our five-star hotels and steady their sea legs on our fabulous beaches. There is no such thing as the
great wines of the Suez Canal!"

As Cape Town has emptied due to coronavirus travel restrictions, the crisis promises a brief return to
the city's maritime peak of the mid-19th century when Herman Melville wrote in Moby Dick, published
in 1851, that around its shores "is where you meet more travellers than any other part".

Portuguese navigators first plotted a trade route to Asia in the 1400s. After weeks sailing south along
the African coast they were relieved finally to be able to swing around the rocky headland of the Cape
of Good Hope.

Dutch traders followed, establishing Cape Town as a supply base, but the opening of the Suez and
Panama canals began a slow decline in its maritime pre-eminence.
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I'm sure container lines are planning a layover so their crews can stay in a 5-star hotel and hit the beach, when they're already two weeks behind schedule. The helicopter thing would be more likely, if the lines were actually willing to pay for a helicopter...
 
May I suggest reviving a technique used during the 1973 Yom Kippur War? During that war, Egyptian military engineers used water jets to blow holes in the steep Eastern Bank of the Suez Canal.
Use massive water pumps to blast sand away from the ship's bow. This reduces risk to back-hoe operators, because they don't have to work in the shadow of the ships.
Hardware is readily available as it is used for "Hydraulic mining" of sediments.
 
riggerrob said:
May I suggest reviving a technique used during the 1973 Yom Kippur War? During that war, Egyptian military engineers used water jets to blow holes in the steep Eastern Bank of the Suez Canal.
Use massive water pumps to blast sand away from the ship's bow. This reduces risk to back-hoe operators, because they don't have to work in the shadow of the ships.
Hardware is readily available as it is used for "Hydraulic mining" of sediments.
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This is essentially what they are doing already with suction dredging, except they are removing silt from under the ship rather than the bank. Since they are the ones actually on the scene, I assume this makes the most sense, what with a good third of the ship aground.
 
I think realistically there’s no way to unground her without offloading containers. Maybe ballast and fuel will work, but with 20,000 containers, I doubt it. Helicopters technically might be possible, but aren’t realistic in terms of time or money. It will take crane ship with over 60 meters of clearance. There are several in Diego that might be suitable if the US wants to get involved.
 
TomS said:
I'm sure container lines are planning a layover so their crews can stay in a 5-star hotel and hit the beach, when they're already two weeks behind schedule. The helicopter thing would be more likely, if the lines were actually willing to pay for a helicopter...
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It's actually a thing, and has been for decades.
Well over 50 years in fact.

The options have always been there to pull into the port of Cape Town, or replenish out in the roadstead in Table Bay by helicopter or ship, or replenish on the move whilst going around The Cape by helicopter. That includes passengers, freight, replenishment, etc.
There are chandlery companies in Cape Town that almost exclusively service that need.

Court Helicopters operated a large fleet of Sikorski S61 and S62 helicopters for decades, in a lucrative business, before being bought by CHC in 2000.
Ironically, they started diversifying into offshore replenishment due to the closure of the Suez Canal in 1967. Their first runs were with the Sikorski S-55, before they went for bigger machines. Court had, at one stage, about 30 airframes operating out of Cape Town and Durban.
The Canal has always been vulnerable to events.

Titan Helicopters operate a fleet which includes Sikorski S61, Sikorski S-76, Mil Mi-8, Kamov Ka-32, Augusta AW139, Bell, and Eurocopter helicopters.
 

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Latest TV report is that today's 'Top of Tide' pull failed. More digging / jetting, de-ballasting, tugs and a few precious inches higher tide for tomorrow's try...

Photo on TV showed something like a big barge with two 'long horns' up by the bow. I reckon that's some flavour of dredger.

Beyond the de-ballasting, IIRC, they've a few more days before tides turn less favourable.

Added:
This peroptimistic report dated 24 March https://www.offshore-energy.biz/one-of-the-worlds-largest-containerships-blocks-suez-canal/
This gloomier dated 25 March... https://www.offshore-energy.biz/two...-ever-given-as-logjam-in-suez-enters-3rd-day/
 
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SkyNews24 just reported that rudder and prop have been cleared from other bank. Also, IIRC, ~9 ktonne ballast water pumped out, ~40 ktonne sand shifted from beneath bow. Weather easing and bigger tugs on way...
 
Hopefully resolved soon.
Crazy how vulnerable global trade is, whether by accident or malice.
The entire modern system.. just-in-time logistics of note in particular.
All governed by the pursuit of lower and lower costs.
Being in the freight and haulage industry myself these days, you see it everywhere.
 
TomS said:
kaiserbill said:
It's actually a thing, and has been for decades.
Well over 50 years in fact.
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Thanks for that. I assumed it would be basically a drive-by situation.
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It is mostly.
I remember reading somewhere that around 200 vessels a month availed of a on-the-move helicopter replenishment of some sort per month, and that was just by Court Helicopters.
Before the enlargement of the canal in relatively recent times, the very large vessels still had to round The Cape.
But, as you said, costs and time is paramount.
If the canal got hit by, say an asteroid, they would have to go round The Cape.
It wouldn't be the end of the world, but people would have to wait a little longer until the system realigned.
I am speaking mainly of trade to and from Europe obviously.
There is a wider world out there beyond Europe, with plenty of traffic still going around The Cape.
It was this vital sea-route that originally saw the development and enlargement of Simon's town naval base and the ordering of Buccaneer bombers for the maritime strike role.
 
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kaiserbill said:
Hopefully resolved soon.
Crazy how vulnerable global trade is, whether by accident or malice.
The entire modern system.. just-in-time logistics of note in particular.
All governed by the pursuit of lower and lower costs.
Being in the freight and haulage industry myself these days, you see it everywhere.
Click to expand...

That's... an understatement. Toyota "just in time" dogma "because stocks are expensive" - more and more looks like a criminally stupid idea.
Working for a low cost airline for 15 months I can testify how it led to Kafka-levels of insanity.
- A320 seemingly minor break down on a remote airfield
- Air safety decides to ground it
- Grounded A320 instantly become a money black hole
- Toyota "just in time" means spares have no stock or that stock is stretched thin
End result: complete panic across Europe to find the very few necessary part to un-ground the money pit and send the said part ASAP to the correct place - with transporters being major assholes losing things along the way...

"AOG = AIRCRAFT ON THE GROUND = Simpsons like levels of siliness, pettiness, panic..."

I wasn't the most exposed to the chaos and violence but at times I felt like Frank Grimmes ROTFL.
Seriously - when I told my wife about my daily routines, at times it looked like a Comedy show and it ended with uncontrolable laughter.
 
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It's strange.
My father was a high level accountant who was always very interested in technological progress. He was fascinated by space, and loved the Apollo moon programme.
I remember him telling me in the 1980's that we were heading toward a world that would make it difficult to achieve stuff like that.
And that his profession was going to play a big part in slowing that progress, along with "risk analysts", which he hated.
He was very much against this, being one of the few in his profession that could see the danger of bean counters becoming too powerful, or running the show.
I see it now every day in my work, where the accountant insists on cutting expenditure always. We almost ran out of diesel in an era of historic low fuel prices, when we should have been buying tens of thousands of litres extra.
Ludicrous.
I thought I was living in a real-life Monty Python skit at one stage.

Anyway, I digress.
Any news on how things are going there on the ground?
 
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Archibald said:
Toyota "just in time" dogma "because stocks are expensive" - more and more looks like a criminally stupid idea.
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Ironically, Toyota has at least partly abandoned that model in the last decade for things like semiconductor chips.


It is probably safe to say that the canal blockage hasn't helped the global chip shortage, some of the latest news on that below:
www.thestreet.com

NIO and Ford the Latest to Idle Production Amid Chip Shortage

NIO and Ford are the latest carmakers to idle production due to the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage that has impacted global car and truck production.
www.thestreet.com www.thestreet.com
 
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