Stranded for several hours! After a brief grounding, the cargo ship has resumed normal traffic through the Suez Canal!

Cargo ship stranded briefly, now back to normal traffic in Suez Canal

Business Dialogue has learned that, according to Reuters, on May 25th, a tugboat managed to move a large ship that had been stranded in the Suez Canal for several hours. Sources said that after a brief congestion, shipping on the world’s busiest waterway has returned to normal.

Two canal sources said that as of around 11 a.m. local time on May 25th (0800 GMT), traffic had returned to normal, about six hours after the ship ran aground and two to three hours after it was towed away.

Shipping agent Leth Agencies identified the ship as the MV XIN HAI TONG 23, a 190-meter (623-foot) long bulk carrier.

“The Suez Canal Authority successfully refloated the M/V XIN HAI TONG 23 at 0740H local time (0440H GMT). Convoys will resume northbound transit at 0930H,” one tweet showed.

• Cross-border e-commerce entrepreneurship complete guide from scratch (7) – How to price your products
• Geodis announces acquisition of Southern Companies and launches new electronic logistics warehousing facilities
• Japan’s Rakuten plans to issue new stocks to raise approximately 22 billion US dollars

The Suez Canal Authority said in a statement that they had been informed of an engine failure and deployed tugboats to successfully move the ship.

“As a precaution, traffic will resume in both directions as soon as the towing process is completed,” the canal authority said.

Leth had earlier said on Twitter that the grounding incident had disrupted at least two convoys.

Refinitiv Eikon shipping data showed the Hong Kong-flagged vessel was “not under command” near the southern end of the canal. Its stern was touching the eastern wall of the canal, and it had veered off course towards the center of the channel and was pointing south. Three Egyptian tugboats surrounded it.

The ship is originally from the port of Dhuba in Saudi Arabia. It is owned by Xiang B12 HK International Ship Lease and managed by Tosco Keymax International Ship Management.

BusinessDialogue learned that approximately 12% of world trade passes through the Suez Canal. In the strong winds of 2021, a giant container ship named Ever Given ran aground, causing a blockage of the Suez Canal, interrupting two-way traffic for six days, and disrupting global trade. Last year, a tugboat refloated an oil tanker that had briefly run aground in the canal due to steering technology failure, while a container ship’s malfunction in the canal caused minor delays in March.

Translator: Estella/AMZ123

Disclaimer: This article is copyrighted by BusinessDialogue and may not be reproduced without permission.

We will continue to update BusinessDialogue; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!