For the director of the Higher Institute of Maritime Economy, Paul Tourret, the consequences of the blockage of the Suez Canal by the giant container ship Ever Given says a lot about globalization and the resulting consumption pattern.
On Europe 1, he affirms that consumers are primarily responsible for this extraordinary maritime traffic.
An incident whose consequences say a lot about our way of consuming.
Almost a week after the blockade of the Suez Canal, the giant container ship Ever Given, 400 meters long and more than 220,000 tons was put back afloat on Monday.
An "incident which turned into a small economic accident" which will go down in the annals, according to Paul Tourret, director of Isemar, the Higher Institute of Maritime Economy.
And for good reason, "this is the first time since the age of economic globalization" that we have faced such an event.
Our relationship to manufactured products from the other side of the world in question
From this historic first, Paul Tourret believes that there are lessons to be learned.
Starting with "the problem of having a maritime channel that serves to supply millions of consumers on both sides of the world".
The Suez Canal, some 190 km long, in fact handles around 10% of international maritime trade.
In 2020, nearly 19,000 ships used it.
But the Ever Given incident shows much more than the flow of "XXL international maritime traffic", points out the director of Isemar.
It is the direct consequence of our daily consumption.
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"We brew so many products from all origins on a daily basis that it is ultimately our relationship to manufactured products that should be asked", analyzes the specialist.
"For the moment this system works because we [the consumers] we accept it by going to the mass distribution or by ordering Chinese products on the Internet. Ultimately, we are the first responsible for this XXL maritime trade."