UK ports brace for Suez Canal re-opening
With up to 50,000 containers adding to the Suez Canal queue every day, UK ports and their supporting infrastructure are bracing for, what is likely to be, the largest volume spike ever experienced.
The 20k TEU Ever Given ran aground diagonally across the single-lane stretch of the southern canal on Tuesday morning, after losing the ability to steer in high winds and efforts have so far failed to dislodge the 400 metre long container ship.
UPDATED 29th March: At approx 1500 the Ever Given has been successfully refloated and escorted from the grounding site (see live AIS tracking screen shot). With the channel is clear, it is likely that the Canal will reopen, but the backlog of 300+ vessels will take a week to 12 days to clear. 
Julianne Cona, an assistant engineer on the Maersk Denver, posted the iconic on Instagram showing the vessel blocking the entire canal, with a digger on the eastern bank attempting to dig the ship free.
Julianne’s ship and two others immediately behind the Ever Given, were escorted out of the canal so that the Ever Given could be towed out immediately, once re-floated.
With costs of the delay and salvage mounting, insurance sources are suggesting that unless Evergreen can reach a ‘commercial agreement’ with the leased-vessel’s owner, it is likely that General Average would be declared.
Around 30 vessels from Asia sail through the Suez Canal each week with an average capacity of 380,000 TEU, which is equivalent to 55,000 TEU of cargo arriving in Europe daily, which means we (potentially) have a 350,000+ TEU spike, to welcome.
In addition to the inbound delays, the daily export of thousands of loaded and empty containers back to Asia every day, which is inevitably going to impact the numbers of empty containers available in Asia.
There have not been many incidents of ultra-large container ships running aground, but when the 19,000 TEU CSCL Indian Ocean ran aground in the Elbe river outside Hamburg in 2016, it took 6 days to get the vessel re-floated and it is looking likely to be the case here
Shipping lines will be considering how long they wait before they begin diverting vessels around Africa on Asia-North Europe and Asia-USEC services, adding a week to transit and using a lot more fuel.
As of yesterday 350+ vessels of all types, which means that additional waiting times must be anticipated when the canal does open up again, with clearance expected to take 7-12 days.
