On March 23, the Suez Canal, one of the world’s busiest transport arteries, became blocked in both directions when the ultra-large Golden-class container ship Ever Given (operated by the firm Evergreen), en route from Malaysia to the Netherlands, ran aground cross-ways. For nearly a week, the massive vessels remained lodged along both embankments of the man-made waterway. According to various estimates, every day of blockage was costing the global economy approximately $9.6 billion (Lenta, March 25). Between 2015 and 2020, approximately 90,000 ships, carrying a total of 5.5 billion tons of cargo (approximately 12 percent of world trade), traversed the artery. Moreover, the Suez Canal serves as the main transportation route for hydrocarbons being shipped from the Middle East to the European Union and the United States (Finam.ru, March 25). The commodity data tracking company Kpler has noted that the obstruction by the Ever Given resulted in seven tankers (carrying 6.3 million barrel of oil) being stuck in the Canal, temporarily raising global oil prices and—more importantly—breeding uncertainty among investors (Rossiyskaya Gazeta, March 26). By the following Monday (March 29), the Egyptian authorities finally succeeded in freeing the container ship and moving it out of the way.
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