Suez blockage is holding up $9.6bn of goods a day

Looks like this very large container vessel got stuck pretty bad, they are having to dig around it to get it unstuck. Although there are others ways around, this accident is causing a costly blockage at the Suez canal.

 

Fat ships
to serve
fat living
clog artery
of capitalism

 

Yeah, I've heard about this in recent days. I don't know why nobody posted about this until now.

I haven't been following the story, but I have 3 ideas about why this happened.

1. The captain and crew were incredibly stupid and did what no one else did in heavy boating traffic over many years. Solution? It's time to invest in more automation, taking over the job of steering and guidance of these massive ships.

2. Egypt has been lazy in keeping this valuable route open and maintained. So, maybe they need to clear and dredge this channel. Because I don't know how that lump of sand appeared on the side bank. The path should be deep from wall to wall on the sides of the canal. Solution? Egypt needs to spend more money($$$) to maintain this valuable asset. Penny-pinching didn't work.

3. There is something (!) that intelligence agencies want to stop from crossing through that channel, and they needed an excuse to stop traffic through the Suez Canal. Solution? Egypt should accept aid from the USA to clear the ship.

Well, that's my thoughts.

 

I know the ship had a licensed pilot aboard for navigating the canal. I heard even though there was a pilot aboard the Captain of the ship was still responsible. That surprises me. I always felt the pilot was in charge of the handling and was also responsible. Is there any one on this board that "knows" if that is true or not?

 

1. It is easy to point fingers in a situation like this, but everyone makes mistakes. Presumably the wind caught this thing enough to cause one end to run into a bank, and it was game over from there. The size of the ship relative to the width of the strait did not leave much room for error.

2. I've heard that Egypt has been expanding it to accommodate larger vessels, and of course they have a massive economic interest in doing this and maintaining it, so unless something forced them to be negligent, I doubt that they were.

3. Sounds like the start of a good thriller.

 

This blockage of the canal is causing all kinds of problems. They are now asking for help from the US navy, and many of the loitering ships waiting for passage are at increasing danger from pirates and have been warned to be on alert as they are easier targets than usual. Oil prices, container prices and shipping prices are also temporarily being negatively effected by this accident.

 

I don't know how it is in the civilian shipping industry, but in the military, there is a spotter who surveys the surroundings and relays that information to the captain, who in turn decides what they should do and relays commands to the pilot... I think?

 

Thanks. I believe civilian vs. military would be the same as the rules pertaining to navigation are the same world wide.

 

Oh, okay. You blew my assumptions out of the water. But, nice thought about this making a good thriller.

 

With the deck cargo stacked above the water line the way it was, that ship was just like a floating cork. Without a lot of anticipation it was totally at the mercy of the wind.

 

the ship suffered a complete power blackout ...

 

Says who?

 

It's amazing how this is impacting the economy. This is why we need some level of isolationist economics. Whatever happens to being independent and self reliant to some degree.

 

It only seems to be blocking Europe?

We talk about the route from Asia to Europe, instead of from Europe to Asia; what is Asia buying that's coming from Europe?

The Americas (North and South) should be okay for getting goods from the Middle East and Asia; since it's another direction; and another canal (Panama).

 

I love the poetry here.

 

I read it somewhere the day it happened ... sorry don't have the source ...

 

Well, I've not heard a thing about it, so I'm assuming it's an unfounded rumor not worth repeating.

 

agreed ... it appears the story has changed and it is now being blamed on wind and a sandstorm ... https://www.freightwaves.com/news/s...uthority said,of Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

 

Until something like this happens at home.

You can't prevent accidents with isolationism.

 

We have a greater level of control of what happens here than on the world stage. Also, what if a country intentionally did stuff like this in a war? We need to be self reliant.

 

Being self-reliant is good. This accident isn't a good argument for it, though.

 

All countries should should be making more toilet paper at home.

It's a great example.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...ext-likely-victim-of-world-s-container-crisis

 

Yep, it's a good time to work on rebalancing imports and exports, and developing more domestic industry. This is especially important with China becoming such a nuisance anyway.

 

Accidents happen everywhere. When one happens here, having outside suppliers of goods is beneficial.

 

It is difficult to imagine a wind strong enough to move such a large vessel. It's definitely intriguing.