2023-05-25 19:41:49
- Wael Diab
- BBC – Cairo
Incidents of navigation disruptions in the course of the Suez Canal have been repeated during the past six months, as four ships of different sizes ran aground and broke down in the most prominent waterway in the world, for various reasons, some of which are related to the size of the ships passing through the canal, the weather during transit, and the lack of duplication of the navigational course on the entire navigational path, in addition to human errors. in which the marine pilotage crew and ship captains may be located.
On Thursday morning, the Suez Canal Authority’s locomotives succeeded in floating a cargo ship flying the Hong Kong flag within less than two hours of its delinquency, due to a technical failure that affected its navigational equipment, which is the latest incident in a similar series that caused the navigation to be disrupted recently.
The ship, Shin Hai Tong 23, which is 190 meters long and 32 meters wide, with a tonnage of 34,000 tons, ran aground near the southern entrance to the canal, before three locomotives belonging to the authority, which manages the navigational stream, floated it and towed it to the south and restored navigation to normal. within three hours.
The delinquency of the Shin Hai Tong 23 ship is the fourth of its kind in five months, and compared to the same period last year, the number of marine accidents in the Suez Canal has doubled, according to statistics and facts published on the authority’s official website.
The Canal Authority had reported on January 9 of this year that it had succeeded in floating the Glory ship, and explained at the time that the navigation movement was not disrupted because the ship had run aground in a double-lane area of the navigational stream.
On the first of last February, the Authority’s locomotives returned the ship, Grace Emilia, to its track, following a malfunction that caused it to lose its direction and disrupt navigation in the canal.
The authority also succeeded in floating the MSC Istanbul ship following it used four tugboats on March 5, 2023, in an incident that affected navigation for a short time, following which the ship resumed its journey to Portugal.
The most prominent delinquency accident in 2021 was of the Evergiven container ship, which was regarding 400 meters long and which took 6 continuous days of work to float.
The delinquency of Evergiven caused losses to the authority, damage to a number of participating marine units, and one of the boats sank during the rescue work, and this led to the impact of supply chains and a temporary rise in oil prices.
Great hike…but why?
Navigation experts say that most ships pass the Suez Canal very smoothly, as it is a straight path without curves or zigzags. However, this did not prevent the occurrence of some accidents due to technical reasons resulting from the failure of train engines, or human or climatic reasons, or reasons related to the tendency to increase the size of ships.
As for the most prominent reason for the stranding of ships, according to Wael Kaddour, a former member of the Suez Canal Authority Board of Directors, it is a compound cause that includes the large size of ships with bad weather.
Kaddour told the BBC that the largest percentage of ships crossing the canal are container ships, some of which are 400 meters in length and more than 160 meters in width, with loads exceeding 24,000 containers.
The marine expert explains that in the event of high winds, the chances of the ship drifting in some areas increase with its huge size, which also makes it difficult to float and takes a long time to complete the task of towing it.
According to Kaddour, there should be better guiding and marine instructions to deal with these cases, and it is also advised that large ships not enter the channel in case of strong winds.
As for the other reasons, they are related to the marine guides whose duties are summarized in assisting and guiding the ship’s crew to cross safely in the navigational stream.
Some put the competence of the channel’s mentors under evaluation, as there are those who see a failure to prepare and qualify them, and there are those who strongly defend the competence and professionalism of the training provided by the Egyptian guides.
Rear Admiral Nader Darwish, an expert in maritime accidents and a former guide in the Suez Canal, says that the statistics of ship stranding accidents in the Suez Canal are normal compared to other shipping lanes.
Darwish explained that not completely duplicating the navigational course leads to a disruption of navigation if the ships break down or run aground, adding that the instructions of the Suez Canal prevent the delinquent ship from bypassing so that no greater accidents occur.
During the last year, regarding 23,000 ships passed through the Suez Canal, according to official statistics.
The Suez Canal consists of several regions, some of which have a single navigational course that ships heading to the north or south take, and in other regions there is a double path, and the Egyptian authorities are currently working on duplicating the entire navigational corridor to avoid disruption to navigation due to ships stranding or breakdown, but this project does not It is expected to end soon.
Needed improvements
The Egyptian expert Kaddour called on the Suez Canal Authority to keep abreast of the development in the field of ship manufacturing and to prioritize the expansion of the canal to keep pace with global changes, in addition to increasing the capacity of the Suez Canal’s locomotives to reach 285 tons.
According to studies related to the economics of maritime transport, it is believed that by the year 2050, ship tonnage will increase steadily to reach 35,000 containers, while the maximum container load allowed to cross the Suez Canal is currently 24,000 tons, with a length of 313 meters, with a draft of 66 feet.
About 10% of the world trade volume passes through the Suez Canal, which is regarding 193 km long, of which 113 km is a double channel, with numbers exceeding 50 ships per day, as it provides the shortest shipping routes between Europe and Asia.
The canal’s revenues, which amounted to regarding nine billion dollars a year, are considered one of the main sources of foreign exchange in Egypt, following the recent increase in transit fees for all types of ships by 15%.
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