The Evergreen, a ship carrying a heavy load, has recently met with wreckage in the Suez Canal, and the crisis is only intensifying with every passing day. This wreckage is expected to cause a great problem for trade all over the world. Both sides of the Suez Canal carry $ 9.6 billion worth of goods, oil and gas daily, and, on average, $ 400 million (Rs. 2,896 Crores) worth of goods are transported per hour.
Experts have said that it is impossible to move the stuck ship any time soon as one side of the ship got stuck in mud, and being that it is a heavy ship by make and the fact that it’s carrying a very heavy load, make it all the more impossible for the ship to be moved quickly. As a result of this wreckage, 160 other ships are left waiting here, of which 41 are heavy ships and 24 are oil tankers. Transportation expert Allen Bear said that a one-day delay near the Suez Canal would require an additional two days of effort to balance out the situation. With this, the big shipping companies are resorting to alternative routes to the Suez Canal.
The Evergreen is carrying 25 crew members, of which all are Indians. All the crew members are said to be safe, but it is being said that the ship can be put back on the right track only after unloading its 20,000 containers. Around 20,000 cubic meters of sand needs to be removed in order for the ship to float back into the water, which would mean that there needs to be digging to a depth of 12 to 16 meters.
Container vessels play a key role in oil transportation. The faster these ships carry the loaded oil to their destinations, the faster the oil can be transported. More than 16 container ships, already loaded with oil are stranded here. The number of this kind of ships is increasing day by day. This could slow down the supply of petroleum products to European countries.