All ships waiting to pass through the Suez Canal following the Ever Given incident have done so, said Lieutenant General Osama Rabie, Chairperson of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), on Saturday. Rabie added that the navigation reports recorded, on Saturday, the passage of the last group of 61 ships waiting since the accident. In a statement, he said that the total number of vessels that had been waiting in the Great Lakes region, as well as the northern and southern entrances to the canal since the accident, amounted to 422 ships representing a total net weight of 26 million tonnes. He stressed that the SCA's success in getting such a number of ships and huge loads through the Suez Canal in record time is a new achievement that adds to the authority's ability to manage emergency situations and crises. The canal is expected to receive 24 new ships after restoring the regularity of navigation traffic, bringing the total number of vessels passing through to 85. On 23 March, the massive Ever Given container ship ran aground and became lodged across the Suez Canal, blocking passage through a vital waterway for global trade. As a result, there has been a backlog of ships waiting to pass through the canal. Egypt resumed navigation in the canal several hours after the stranded container ship was rescued early last Monday, after which many of the 422 ships that have been kept waiting started to cross. Linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, the Suez Canal is a major lifeline for global seaborne trade since it allows ships to travel between Europe and South Asia without navigating around Africa. As a result, it reduces the distance taken through sea voyages between Europe and India by about 7,000 km. Some 12% of the world trade volume passes through the man-made canal.
