The Suez Canal Authority is contemplating increasing the southern part of the waterway the place the container ship Ever Given grew to become stranded, its chairman mentioned on Tuesday.
It’s also trying into procuring cranes that would probably offload cargo at heights of as much as 52 meters, Osama Rabie advised Reuters in an interview.
“Our procedures are sound, we’re simply aiming to enhance the service,” he mentioned.
The 400-meter-long Ever Given grew to become grounded diagonally throughout the southern part of the canal throughout excessive winds on March 23. It remained caught for six days, stopping a whole bunch of ships from passing and considerably impacting international commerce flows.
After it was dislodged, the ship was taken to a lake that separates two sections of the canal the place the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has been conducting investigations.
Rabie mentioned knowledge from the ship’s recorders had been eliminated and handed over to an investigation committee, and that the ship would journey on as soon as the procedures have been accomplished.
“We’re speaking about two or three extra days, God prepared. However we gained’t take a lot time,” he mentioned.
The committee investigating the grounding was made up of 5 – 6 members with regulation, maritime, salvage, and administration experience, he mentioned, including that it had precipitated Egypt nice harm.
“We used about 15 tug boats, for six days. We labored 24 hours a day. We used two dredgers. We used help launches,” Rabie mentioned. “The canal was closed for six days. That alone precipitated nice hurt.”
The SCA has mentioned that it’s going to proceed to take ships of the Ever Given’s measurement and is reinforcing its capability to take care of future issues.
“We’ll attempt to get two extra tug boats, with pulling energy of greater than 200 tonnes – 250, 280, relying,” Rabie mentioned.
The authority was additionally learning and planning a attainable enlargement of the southern a part of the canal, the realm the place the Ever Given bought caught.
“If there’s a 250-metre half that wants enlargement, possibly we are going to make it 400 meters,” Rabie mentioned.
(Reporting by Nadeen Ebrahim and Patrick Werr, extra reporting by Mahmoud Mourad; Writing by Nadine Awadalla and Aidan Lewis; Enhancing by John Stonestreet, Philippa Fletcher and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
