The congestion of the Suez Canal in Egypt has been lifted and the flow of global maritime trade has been completely restored to normal.
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 4th (local time), ship operations are rapidly accelerating following the declaration of the Suez Canal Management Administration (SCA) to clear the canal congestion.
It has been 11 days since the super-large container ship Evergiven blocked the canal on the 23rd of last month, and 5 days since the Evergiven was supported on the 29th of last month.
On the day the congestion was announced, a total of 85 were passed through the canal, including 61 remaining until the last of the 422 ships that had been waiting for the Evergiven to be supported.
Considering that the original Suez Canal averaged 40-50 vessels per day, more boats than usual have passed through the canal to relieve congestion.
According to WSJ, many ships that passed through the canal recently flew 8-10 knots faster than the maximum speed limit (7.6 to 8.6 knots, about 14 to 16 km per hour).
It is observed that ships have passed the canal faster than before to help clear the congestion.
WSJ added, “Shipping all goods from crude oil and gas to consumer goods and livestock has been facilitated by eliminating congestion.”
The Suez Canal, which contains 14% of international maritime trade volume and 10% of crude oil transported by sea, was blocked, causing great confusion in global commerce.
Shipping information company Lloyd-Rist estimated that transportation of cargo worth $9.6 billion (approximately 1.08 trillion won) between Asia and Europe was delayed every day due to the congestion of the Suez Canal.
It is also estimated that Egypt, where profits from the Suez Canal accounted for 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) due to tolls before the Corona 19 pandemic, etc., also suffered a lot of losses.
When the Suez Canal was double tracked in 2015, the travel time was cut in half from 22 hours to 11 hours, and the traffic volume also increased sharply.
Accordingly, Egypt’s Suez Canal toll revenue earned in fiscal year 2018-2019 and fiscal year 2019-2020 amounted to $5.8 billion (about 6.58 trillion won) and $5.7 billion (about 6.43 trillion won), respectively. Reached.
Earlier, SCA Commissioner Osama Ravi said he lost 14 to 15 million dollars a day (approximately 15.8 to 16.9 billion won) as the canal traffic was blocked.
As the canal congestion is cleared, attention is now focused on who will be responsible for the unprecedented event.
Egypt said it would claim compensation of $1 billion (about 1,129 billion won) in relation to the incident, and has not yet disclosed details such as the subject of the claim.
The AFP news agency pointed out that the Suez Canal congestion worsened the situation while the Corona 19 pandemic caused delays in international transportation.
“There is a debate about the need to reform the transportation industry because of the two incidents,” he said. “There is a discussion about the need to digitalize (transportation industry) much more for smooth logistics and emergency response.”
(Photo = Getty Image Korea)