COMMENTARY

Review and Analysis of Blockage of Suez Canal

Region Due to Giant Container Ship
AUTHORS ABSTRACT
Irfan Ahmed Khan Navigation through narrow waterways always requires expertise and help from
Department of Marine Engineering local authorities to facilitate safer and faster navigation. The recent Suez Canal
Technology, Texas A&M University blockage by the ultra-large container ship Ever Given running aground has result-
at Galveston ed in a temporary halt and extended delay in goods transportation. Blockage of
Syed Rahman such a critical waterway has raised major concerns about the risk involved in nav-
Electrical and Computer Engineering igation. This commentary attempts to analyze the background and chain of events
Department, Texas A&M University leading up to the blocking of the Suez Canal. In this process, the issues related to
navigation and following up salvage efforts are analyzed to identify the critical
areas of improvement. Based on these identifications, suggestions for future im-
Importance of Suez Canal provement of navigation and better preparedness to optimize the salvage efforts
and Global Impact have been identified. These suggestions include digitalization, prediction-based nav-
History igation capabilities, development of tugboats and associated tools, and so forth.

S uez Canal is one of the most sig- Keywords: ultra-container cargo ships, Suez Canal, Ever Given, digitalization,
nificant manmade waterways connecting cyber-secured system
the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea
(Schøyen & Bråthen, 2011). This cover 13,454 nautical miles (Youtube it. With a length of 400 m and a
manmade canal is 120 miles long, Sky News, 2021). Taking this longer width of 59 m, this ship has the dis-
205 m wide, and 24 m deep. It took route would cost about $400K per tinction of being one of the longest
10 years of construction and was offi- vessel. International Chamber of ships. This ship is capable of carrying
cially inaugurated in 1869 under the Shipping (ICS) estimates about $3 21,124 twenty-foot equivalent unit
Ottoman Empire. It was operational billion worth of goods pass through (TEU) containers. It has a gross ton-
under the Egyptian government and the Suez Canal daily. In 2020, almost nage of 220,940 tonnes (American
European shareholders until it was na- 18,500 ships have passed through the Bureau of Shipping, 2021).
tionalized in 1956 by the Egyptian Suez Canal, controlling almost 12% This container ship employs a
president. A new East-side channel of the global market share. Approxi- low-speed, 11-cylinder–based two-
was added in 2016 for berthing and mately, 10% of the global refined pe- stroke diesel engine. This engine is
unberthing of vessels from the termi- troleum products are shipped through rated 59.3 MW, with a top vessel
nals (BBC, 2021; Huber, 2013). this manmade waterway. Due to this, speed of 22.8 knots. It also has four
any political tension in this region in- additional diesel generators of approx-
Significance and Global Impact creases global crude oil rates (CNBC, imately 4.5 MW each. For port ma-
The Suez Canal provides the 2021; ICS-Shipping, 2021). neuvering, it has two sets of bow
shortest sea link connecting Asia to thrusters rated at 2.5 MW (American
Europe. For example, traveling from Bureau of Shipping, 2021).
China to the United Kingdom Golden Class Container
through the Suez Canal requires 21 Ship Ever Given
days for navigation (distance of Specifications of Ever Given Blocking of Suez Canal
10,224 nautical miles). Comparatively, Ever Given is a golden class built Difficulty in Suez Canal
the same destination traveled around in 2018 by Japan-based Imabari Ship- Navigation
the Cape of Good Hope would require building, and Taiwan-based Ever- The Suez Canal has a conservative
28 days of navigation, as they have to green Marine Corporation operates width of 205 m. It supports two ways

September/October 2021 Volume 55 Number 5 39

of traffic flow, thereby further limiting of the Suez Canal, with no option ever, updates ruled out any mechani-
the available width of the channel for for navigation of any ships from either cal or engine failure as the cause for
navigation of larger ships. Additional- side. ship grounding. However, a detailed
ly, this channel also regulates the con- investigation is ordered to be carried
tainer ships not to be greater than 400 out for the determination of the rea-
Global Impact
m long. Longer ships need special per- sons for this mishap. However, it may
As previously mentioned, this
mission for passing through the chan- take a lot of time for the outcome of
canal is one of the most significant
nel. Due to its busy route and limited the report.
and busiest sea routes in the world.
channel width, navigation through this Based on the present data, the
During its blockage from March 23
channel is always stressful and requires major reason for the erratic navigation
to 29, global crude oil prices jumped
navigation expertise (Rusinov et al., and grounding of the container ship is
up by approximately 4%. This oc-
2021). For this purpose, local Suez- attributed to the extreme weather con-
curred due to the delay in the shipping
based pilots are also provided to help ditions of the region at that time.
of petroleum products. Additionally, a
the ship navigators with local knowl- Heavy winds generated by the sand-
total of 369 vessels were trapped in the
edge and expertise, resulting in the safe storm resulted in the generation of
region resulting in further delay of the
passage of the ships. Passing through sideward navigation forces and poor
already COVID-impacted suffering
this channel generally takes 12–16 visibility of the navigation path result-
business market (BBC, 2021). In addi-
hours to transit (Suez Canal, 2021). ing in loss of controllability of the
tion to crude oil, other industries such
container ship (BBC, 2021; CNBC,
as automobiles, paper, clothing heavily
Suez Canal Blocking Event 2021; USA Today, 2021).
relying on auto parts, and other fin-
The Japanese-owned Ever Given
ished products waited for a week due
cargo ship navigating from Malaysia
to the canal blockage. It is estimated
to the Netherlands entered the Suez
that the loss per vessel per day can be
Canal on March 23, 2021. The canal Refloating Plan Sequence
in the range of $15,000–$30,000.
authorities provided two local Suez pi-
However, the alternate route around
and Floating Ever Given
lots to help the navigators with safe After the grounding of the con-
the Cape of Good Hope would still re-
passage. During this time, the region tainer ship, the following actions
sult in higher expense (daily fuel cost
was experiencing a sandstorm resulting were initiated. Initial actions were to
estimated to be $30,000) with the ad-
in heavy winds flowing across the Suez dig out the ground sand in which
ditional risk of pirates. Few cases of
Canal. These strong winds reached up the container ship was stuck. In
cargo ships taking the other route
to 74 kph. These winds acted on the total, around 30,000 m 3 of sand
also have been observed during the
Ever Given containers (acting as a were removed from the spot. Along
blockade. The decision of choosing
sail) to generate a significant force, with this, 9,000 tons of ballast water
an alternative route would be easier
which led to erratic steering and un- has also been pumped out of the ves-
for pre-informed ships, compared to
controlled sideway navigation. At sel. This helps in lightening the con-
the ships stuck right around the Suez
7:40 of local Egyptian time (Eastern tainer ship. At intermediate stages,
Canal region. London-based Lloyd's
European Time, GMT+2), the Ever multiple tugboats have been em-
List approximated that the blockade
Given cargo ship ran aground and ployed for getting the ship back to
of the Suez Canal results in a loss
turned sideways, with its one side the sea. These boats try to push and
of $400 million every single hour
stuck in the ground and another pull the container ship so they can
(CNBC, 2021).
side almost touching the other side be floated (USA Today, 2021).
of the channel. No damage to the Salvage companies brought in
cargo material or crew has been re- their dredger ships to remove sand
ported. Although parallel channels Potential Reasons for and gravel beneath the seabed. This
are available at some other parts of Navigation Failure would help in getting the ship to
the canal, unfortunately, no parallel Initial investigation has suggested float. Additionally, more tugboats
path existed across this 984-foot–wide a blackout of the container resulting were employed for pushing and pull-
lane, resulting in complete blockage in the loss of navigation control. How- ing this ultra-large container ship.

40 Marine Technology Society Journal

Different salvage efforts carried out
FIGURE 1
are summarized in Figures 1 and 2.
Along with this, the advent of higher Salvage efforts carried out for refloating the Ever Given container ship.
tides would help in accelerating this
process, as they increase the average
depth of the channel by 18 inches.
After continuous efforts of dredgers
and tugboats, the cargo ship was finally
floated on March 29, 2021. Two dredger
boats owned by the Suez Canal Au-
thority (i.e., the 10th of Ramadan and so forth. However, improvements A detailed risk analysis of the
and the Mashhour) were instrumental in related areas such as navigation sys- entire Suez Canal length would be
in refloating the ship (USA Today, tems, incorporation of advanced artifi- highly helpful in planning future nav-
2021). cial intelligence, predictive navigation igation schemes, well-planned salvage
The authorities have also said that capabilities, and so forth are still in the efforts, and critical needs for develop-
the final step would have been to development or incorporation stage ing parallel channels to avoid traffic
lighten the ship by removing the con- (Kumar & Chourasia, 2018). With the blockage at this crucial waterway. An-
tainers from the Ever Given and plac- incorporation of digitalization and ad- other aspect to be investigated is to
ing them in some other ships, vanced intelligence into the current nav- conduct a risk analysis of ultra-large
although this process is extremely igation, capabilities would be greatly container ships, which could poten-
costly as huge cranes must be em- enhanced for handling any extreme tially highlight the challenges in navi-
ployed for moving these containers, weather conditions (Baldauf et al., gation and recommendations needed
and additional container ships must 2018). This would also help in reducing for avoiding this situation in the fu-
be brought in to house those con- reliance on local navigation experts, gen- ture (Jeong et al., 2019).
tainers. Once the Ever Given starts erally provided to passing ships for safe A major area of concern is no im-
floating, these containers must be passage. Another major concern (al- provement in the planning of salvage
put back. Fortunately, the ship was though not surfaced in this incident) efforts carried out after the incident,
floated before using cranes. would be the communication failure of which resulted in a delay, amounting
the container ship in case of a cyber-at- to millions of dollars. This reflects a
tack. With long voyages almost circling lack of planning to meet these cir-
the globe, these container ships require cumstances from both the Suez
Suggestions for Improving reliable and fast communication, Canal authorities and the Ever Given
Future Navigation and which is critical for a time-bound and crew team. Another concern is to de-
Salvage Efforts in safe voyage. Thus, a method to improve velop stronger tugboats. Although the
Suez Canal this reliable and cyber-robust system capabilities and power rating of con-
Although a detailed inquiry has must be developed (Hassani et al., tainer ships have increased significantly,
been ordered for determining the 2017; Figure 3). there is no improvement in the power
exact reasons for the grounding of
Ever Given, this incident has raised FIGURE 2
serious concerns about the fragile na- Employment of multiple tugboats during high tides helped in refloating the ship.
ture of international shipping heavily
relying on expert navigation through
narrow waterways. In the last decade,
the shipping industry has seen tremen-
dous progress in terms of increasing
container ship lengths, an increased
container carrying capability, better con-
nectivity, improved shipment tracking,

September/October 2021 Volume 55 Number 5 41

FIGURE 3 digitalization and unmanned ships: challenges
for future maritime education and training.
Different areas of improvement to avoid waterway mishaps in the future.
In: 12th Annual International Technology,
Education and Development Conference
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an estimated $400 million an hour in goods.
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quirement of bringing in more boats ultra-large container ships. This ing, Vol. 57748, pp. 1–6. Trondheim,
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thereby minimizing the time required system, capable of safer navigation
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Conclusion
Blocking of the Suez Canal by the Corresponding Author: ICS-Shipping. 2021. Suez Canal blockage
demonstrates just how much global supply
Ever Given has highlighted the conse- Irfan Ahmed Khan
chains rely on shipping, says International
quences of reliance on traditional nav- Deparment of Marine Engineering
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igation, local experts, and lack of Technology,
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