On March 23, 2021, a vessel owned by Evergreen Marine Corporation got stuck in the middle of Suez Canal, halting ships from being able to pass through the canal. The vessel named “Ever Given” is a 220,000-ton, 400-metre-long ultra-large container ship (ULCS) operated by Taiwan based container transportation and shipping company Evergreen Marine Corporation. According to former captain and maritime law specialist Jamil Sayegh, the vessel could have been blown off course due to strong winds, “The force generated by the wind would have unintentionally altered the heading of the vessel.” However, he went on to add that human error could have been a factor as no previous ships encountered a similar problem passing at the time Ever Given got wedged across the canal. Sayegh further added the financial difficulty of this incident as a costly one, “If you delay this vessel at Suez anchorage, it means you are making the ship owner to lose $60,000 per day or $3-4000 per hour of delay.” Lloyd’s List, a London-based shipping-news journal, came up with data that the blockade resulting from Ever Given is costing $400 million per hour in delayed goods or $9.6 billion a day. Right after the incident, chairman of Suez Canal Authority Lt. Gen. Osama Rabei gave a comment to reporters of the current situation, “There may have been technical or human errors,” following with, “All of these factors will become apparent in the investigation.” With over 300 vessels on each side of Ever Given awaiting passage through, on Saturday, excavators dug out 20,000 tonnes of sand and 14 tug-boats were operated to dislodge the vessel. While the vessel’s rudder has been released from the sediment, the vessel remains stuck. With little progress, the Ever Given has been stuck for over 5 days while prices of commodities such as oil and coffee beans keep rising. The halt stemming from a stuck vessel through the Suez Canal is causing disruptions on global trade and creating a ripple effect on supply chains across the world which were already at a crisis as a consequence of COVID-19 related trades.
The Liberal Conservative 