"The ship began to move north": the container ship Ever Given was recovered from the shallows in the Suez Canal

On Monday, March 29, the container ship Ever Given was floated in the Suez Canal, which since March 23 has blocked traffic in this waterway connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Seas.

In the morning, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced the successful "end of the crisis."

“Now, after the situation has returned to normal, the world can be calm about the goods transported along this vital artery,” the head of state wrote on Twitter.

Then the source of RIA Novosti reported that the ship again blocked the channel due to strong winds, but soon after that the ship was towed back into the fairway.

Later, the administration of the Suez Canal said that the container ship chartered by the Taiwanese company Evergreen Marine Corporation was moving independently towards the Great Bitter Lake.

“The vessel started moving north towards the lakes, where its technical inspection will be carried out.

The tugs insure the movement of the container ship, which is running on its own, its propellers rotate, ”TASS quoted a representative of the Suez Canal Administration as saying.

At the same time, the head of the department, Osama Rabia, indicated that it would take three and a half days to completely eliminate the resulting congestion.

During this time, the channel will operate around the clock.

"Navigation will return to the Suez Canal tonight, at about 20:00 (21:00 Moscow time)," - said Rabia on the Egyptian TV Extra.

At the moment, over 400 ships are awaiting passage through the canal connecting the Mediterranean and the Red Seas.

According to representatives of the Danish shipping company Maersk, a leader in the field of container shipping, it may take "weeks or even months" to recover the industry from the consequences of the incident.

As Admiral Mohab Mamish, Admiral Mohab Mamish, Adviser to the President of Egypt on the Development of Seaports and the Suez Canal, said that navigation has already begun on the waterway: "The caravans inside the canal began to be towed with the help of pilots so that we began to free the Suez Canal from waiting ships in it."

He blamed the incident on the crew of the container ship. 

“What happened is the responsibility of the ship's captain, our channel is safe,” RIA Novosti quotes Mamish.

At the same time, he said, Cairo excludes the possibility of sabotage on a container ship.

Mamish said that bad weather and strong winds were the cause of the incident.

As the adviser to the Egyptian leader noted, from the owner of the ship - the Japanese company Shoei Kisen Kaisha - Cairo will demand compensation for all costs incurred as a result of the incident.

Recall, on March 23, one of the world's largest container ships during a sandstorm that struck Egypt, blocked the movement of cargo ships in the Suez Canal.

According to financiers, more than 50 ships with goods totaling $ 9.6 billion passed through this waterway every day.

At the same time, Iranian Ambassador to Moscow Kazem Jalali proposed using the North-South international transport corridor in the future as an alternative to the Suez Canal.

In his opinion, the route from St. Petersburg to the port of Mumbai with a total length of 7,200 km has a "low level of risk."

LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky also pointed out the unreliability of the Suez Canal.

The Russian politician proposed to build a new water main.

“It would be better to build a canal from the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea together with Iran.

To receive dry cargo ships in Astrakhan, and then to carry goods to Europe by rail, ”he wrote on Twitter.

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In turn, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Morskie Vesti Rossii" Anatoly Kuznetsov, on the air of Sputnik radio, expressed the assumption that the incident would force shipowners to pay attention to the Northern Sea Route.

“Against this background, in my opinion, our Northern Sea Route has started playing - how unique it is.

Firstly, it is shorter - there is less movement for a week.

Secondly, such things cannot happen there, because there are no limited shores.

And the ice escort by our nuclear icebreakers guarantees absolute safety, ”the expert explained.

A similar point of view is held by the Russian Ministry of Energy.

According to the representative of the Ministry of Energy, the Northern Sea Route has a "high potential for expanding volumes", and also allows to significantly reduce the time of transportation of goods from Asia to Europe.

“We expect further growth in supplies and the fulfillment of the task set by Russian President Vladimir Putin to increase cargo traffic by 2024 to 80 million tons per year,” the ministry said.