The repercussions of the disruption of navigation in the Suez Canal are exacerbating ... and fears of overwhelming chaos in global maritime trade

Damascus-Sana

The repercussions of the disruption of navigation in the Suez Canal following the stranding of a giant container ship interact rapidly, amid increasing fears of chaos in global maritime trade and the possibility of high inflation at the global level, as more ships transporting cargo and goods are forced to divert their course.

Attempts to liberate the huge vessel Evergiven stuck in the Suez Canal have continued since last Tuesday using locomotives and heavy bulldozers, but navigation in the canal remains disrupted for the fifth consecutive day with the failure of all attempts to float, while the bill of traffic congestion in the canal worsens for the whole world, according to the American Bloomberg Agency. It's hard to come up with a figure that will cover the cost of how long the ship remains stuck in the waterway.

Data published by the US Agency indicated that the cost of shipping increased several times due to the closure of the Suez Canal, which means that the cost of this traffic stop is estimated at $ 10 billion in oil and commodities sailing through the corridor on a normal day.

The agency clarified that freight rates after the canal stopped significantly increased and cited several examples of this, including the rise in the cost of shipping a 40-foot container from China to Europe to about $ 8,000, nearly four times the number a year ago, and the profits of very large crude oil tankers that transport Oil from the Middle East to China to $ 1,371 a day, recording a second-day profit only in more than seven weeks.

With the possibility that the canal will stop operating for weeks, cargo owners are now talking about the cost of directing their ships to Africa, a decision that is "not easy", according to Bloomberg, who indicated that sailing around the Cape of Good Hope adds 6,000 miles or the equivalent of 9,650 kilometers to the voyage and the fuel costs alone will amount to about 300,000 Dollars for a giant tanker transporting Middle Eastern oil to Europe.

The suspension of navigation through the Suez Canal connecting Europe and Asia has led to deepening problems of already troubled shipping lines and delays in supplying retail goods to consumers. Analysts expect a greater impact on smaller tankers and petroleum products if the canal remains suspended for weeks.

The repercussions of the closure of the channel directly affected the cargo index, which rose for "Long Range 2" vessels from the Middle East to Japan, known as "TC1", to 137.5 points yesterday, compared to 100 points last week.

Likewise, an index of freight costs for "Long Range 1" vessels on the same route recorded an increase of 130.5 points from 125 points at the end of last week.

The closure of the canal also affects 10 to 15 percent of the production of shipping containers in the world and affects millions of dollars' worth of insurance policies on these containers in addition to that the closure is in addition to the disruptions in the goods supply chain caused by the Corona crisis, which cost global trade more than 200 billion Dollars since the beginning of this year.

The head of the Japanese company Shwe Kisen Kaisha, the owner of the huge container tanker stuck in the canal, expressed his hope that the ship would float this evening, indicating that the specialized teams are in the process of removing sedimentation by using additional dredging tools, while the company in charge of salvaging the ship showed more caution as it stated that it would take days or even Weeks to resume navigation traffic in the canal.

Hanadi Al-Asaad