The Suez Canal is open again, but the impact of the Ever Given saga will be felt for a while
The large cargo ship is free and the Suez Canal is open again.
But as traffic jams resume on an important waterway, experts say that mid-week seafood jam could have long-lasting effects.
It has already grossed $ 9 billion in land trade per day and continued to intensify supply options that were already carrying the coronavirus epidemic.
The Ever Given proverb left more than 400 ships, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, and flooded each side of the canal as they waited for a bottle-fed ship that had been abandoned.
140 of them were expected to cross the waterway on Tuesday after 113 did so overnight, a ditch official said.
To prevent any unforeseen circumstances, the backlog could be removed within a week, said Laleh Khalili, an international political scientist at Queen Mary University in London.
But that is not where the delay will end.
There may be traffic jams in European ports where many ships are heading, added Khalili. The crisis could last for several months, Jan Hoffmann, an expert at the International Conference on Trade and Development, told a news conference on Tuesday.
The backlog will then determine when the containers on delayed vessels can be unloaded before being loaded with other supplies.
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“Today’s four- or five-day delay is a four- or five-day delay – in a few weeks – for someone trying to move a box from somewhere else,” said John Mangan, a professor of maritime transport and logistics in Newcastle, England. University.
In recent months there has been a huge increase in commodity levels as production and consumption have risen from the epidemic as the global economy begins to recover, Mangan said.
That means any delay will come at a much higher cost.
Some goods on delayed vessels may now be damaged or timed – intended for Easter, this Sunday, for example – and may be in vain.
“The timing of this is very scary,” said Mangan. “I think that’s the only thing that’s worse than it could have been at Christmas.”
Insurance and legal claims from companies whose ships have been delayed and its damaged goods are likely to become popular for some time to come, according to maritime mediator Jeffrey Blum.
“I think we won’t see the end of this for many years yet, because the effect of knocking is so great,” Blum said.
Europe and Asia are in a quandary over the effects of the ban, says Michael Roe, an emerging professor of maritime policy and materials at Plymouth University in England.
The impact on the United States is likely to be limited and indirect, he said.
However, some of the goods crossing the river may have been designed for ports in the northeastern U.S., said Khalili.
U.S. production Depending on the materials produced in the areas affected by the Suez siege can also be affected.
“Due to the global nature of the supply chain, the products made in the U.S. will take separate parts from Europe, and vice versa,” Mangan said. “We call it ‘supply chain contagion’ – the idea of an effect in one place that immediately affects another.”
The issue was clear at the White House with reports of Ever Given being used.
“It’s just another reminder of how important it is to ensure that our supply capacity continues,” National Economic Council director Brian Deese said on Twitter.
‘Counting’
About 12 percent of global trade passes through the Suez Canal, which allowed nearly 19,000 vessels to pass through the Mediterranean last year.
Egypt’s victorious President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi said the event drew international attention to the importance of a waterway, an important link between Europe and Asia that helps reduce travel and speed up trade.
“We had no hope of anything like this, but the end did its job. It showed and confirmed the authenticity and significance of the river,” Sissi said as he greeted workers during a visit to the canal authority on Tuesday.
While Egypt’s strongest leader sought to make eye contact with his country, some saw an opportunity.
The incident highlighted the safety of Russia’s North Sea Route and its “reliability compared to other routes,” the Moscow Energy Ministry said on Monday.
While a recent proverb may force us to reconsider how global shipping works, experts say the world’s dependence on the river is unlikely to change anytime soon.
“I think this is a painful temporary paper on which to study lessons, but I don’t think it will change the way shipping takes place,” said Blam, a maritime mediator.
However, the collapse of the ban requires that others be “counted,” says Khalili, and naval authorities may have to reconsider the passage of large vessels through the river.
Instead of waiting for it to be removed, many ships chose another route around the Cape of Good Hope on the southern African island – a 3,000-mile [3,000 km] route that could take ten days to three weeks to complete, which could cause delays.
Analysts are divided on whether that would have been a good idea, but the deviation has at least given reassurance to the shipowners while some have been left with the grace of uncertain surgery.
While the incident may have been a “one-time” event that was difficult for anyone to predict, the effects on international shipping should not have gripped the world, Mangan said.
But with only a few routes for shipping worldwide, he added, “Suez will be there for a long time