ISMAILIA, Egypt — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi
pledged Tuesday investment to avoid any repetition of the past week's closure
of the Suez Canal as he paid a celebratory visit to the reopened trade artery.
اضافة اعلان
The promise came a day after the refloating of the giant
container vessel MV Ever Given, which hit the eastern bank of the narrow
shipping lane last Tuesday and became wedged diagonally across its span for
nearly a week.
"We will acquire all the necessary equipment for the
canal" to avoid similar incidents, Sisi said during a visit to Ismailia,
home to the Suez Canal Authority.
He did not specify what hardware would be bought, but SCA
chief Osama Rabie has cited the need for both dredgers and new tugboats in
comments to media.
Egyptian authorities have presented the freeing of the
megaship as a vindication of the country's engineering and salvage
capabilities.
Traffic on the canal, a conduit for over 10 percent of world
trade, began moving again on Monday evening, after tailbacks totaling 425 ships
built up to the north and south.
On Tuesday morning, maritime tracking sites showed ships
similar in size to the Ever Given navigating the narrow waterway.
Widening ruled out
But many more cargo ships were seen waiting at its two
entrances, in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. The SCA says it will take over
three days for the tailbacks to clear.
Maritime data company Lloyd's List said the blockage had
held up an estimated $9.6 billion worth of cargo each day between Asia and
Europe.
The near week-long blockage has left Egypt facing scrutiny
over how to avoid another similar crisis.
But both Sisi and the SCA have been quick to rule out a
widening of the southern section of the canal, where the blockage occurred.
"Economically, it would not be useful," he said.
Egypt spent more than $8 billion on widening a segment and
creating a second lane on a northerly stretch in 2014-15.
Professor Jean-Marie Miossec, a maritime transport expert at
France's Paul-Valery University in Montpellier, said it would "be prudent
... to only authorize (passage) by small and medium-sized ships at
nighttime," restricting oil tankers and other very large ships to daylight
hours.
The giant Panamanian-flagged vessel operated by Taiwanese
Evergreen Marine Corporation was stranded after running aground on the east
bank of the waterway in a sandstorm.
Helped by tugboats, it has been shifted out of the path of
other ships, and was anchored late Monday ahead of an investigation.
The clearance operation required over 10 tugs, as well as
dredgers.
Picking up the tab
Ahmed Abbas, a Suez Canal employee, shared live footage from
the scene on his Facebook account as the ship was refloated, exclaiming:
"Praise be to God, the vessel is finally out! Well done to the SCA
boys!"
Up to "2,000 workers provided outside services",
the employee added.
"The determining factor is that we dug deeper under the
bow of the ship and widened to form a pool of water below" at a depth of
about 12m, he revealed.
Elsewhere, salvage teams dug up to 18m.
Egypt lost between $12 and $15 million in revenues for each
day the waterway was closed, according to slightly revised SCA figures.
It is seeking to recover some of its losses, stretching also
to damage to the canal generated by the intensive rescue efforts.
"Litigation is likely to ensue to determine legal
responsibility for the Ever Given blocking the canal," said Marcos Alvarez
of credit ratings agency DBS Morning Star.
"Indications are that the responsible partners would
include the owner of the ship, its operator, and the Suez Canal Authority,
which requires local pilots to guide ships through the canal."
The crisis forced shipping firms to choose
between waiting or rerouting vessels around the southern tip of Africa, which
adds 9,000km and more than a week of travel to the trip between Asia and
Europe.
.jpg)
.jpg)
