The colossal container ship blocking the Suez Canal is floating again due to efforts by salvage team almost a week after the giant vessel ran aground in one of the world's most important trade paths.
Leth Agencies said early Monday that the modest breakthrough came after intensive efforts to push and pull the ship with 10 tugboats and vacuum up sand with several dredgers at spring tide.
Lt Gen Osama Rabei, the head of the Suez Canal Authority, said workers continued pulling maneuvers to refloat the vessel early Monday.
While the ship is floating again, it is still not clear yet when would the waterway be open for traffic. According to reports, there are over 450 ships stuck.
The skyscraper-sized Ever Given got stuck in a canal last Tuesday, holding up $9 billion in global trade each day. The backlog has affected the global supply chain, already stretched by the pandemic, as the canal is the main route for about 12 per cent of global trade.
Some ships have already opted for the long and expensive trip around the southern tip of Africa instead of Suez.
Earlier, officials had blamed 40-knot gusts and a sandstorm for the accident for the blockage of the Suez Canal. However, on Saturday, Egypt's Suez Canal chief said Saturday that "technical or human errors" can be the reason behind the grounding of the ship.
(With inputs from PTI)
