Ah well, here we go again…
Looks like ships blocking the Suez Canal is part of the routine now as another ship from Panama recently got stuck after traveling only 33 miles into the canal. The giant vessel, called the Coral Crystal, temporarily blocked the canal on Thursday, halting traffic at the world’s most important waterway and delaying shipments yet again.
The Coral Crystal blocked one lane of the canal which resulted in authorities having to divert the path of four other ships that were originally supposed to take that route but were stuck behind the ship. Fortunately, the blockage was resolved without much delay thanks to the canal’s tugboats but it still served as a great lesson of how one simple mistake can disrupt the financial operations of the shipping industry in a matter of minutes.
Thankfully, the smaller size of the Coral Crystal compared to the Ever Given made it easier for authorities to refloat it and send it on its way even with 43,000 tons of cargo on board. This makes it the third incident of a ship getting stuck in the canal, following the Maersk Emerald incident in May, which luckily didn’t block other ships from passing by.
This incident happened not long after the iconic Ever Given vessel blocked the whole canal for one week back in March, disrupting the global shipping industry and causing millions in losses. One might think, after such a huge catastrophe, that the authorities would plan on expanding the canal to avoid future accidents like these but seems like they needed another incident to fully make up their mind. The authorities are now planning on widening different parts of the canal to avoid future blockage and breaking down of larger ships.
