It’s going to be seen as the unwanted gift that keeps, uh, “Given.”
That mammoth ship, called “Ever Given,” was finally pulled freed from the Suez Canal on Monday after six days’ worth of causing problems.
The lasting effect will not be pleasant.
“We might celebrate the success of releasing the ship and unblocking the Suez, but that’s not the end of the story here,” said Douglas Kent, executive vice president of strategy and alliances at the Association for Supply Chain Management.
The ship, at more than 1,300 feet is almost as long as the Empire State Building is tall, was dislodged around 9 a.m. ET on Monday with the help of more than 10 tugboats and a serious amount of dredging.
Roughly 12% of global trade navigates the Suez Canal on ships such as the Ever Given, which was holding nearly 20,000 steel box containers.
A CNBC story reported that Lloyd’s List estimates that more than $9 billion worth of goods passes through the 120-mile waterway daily, translating to around $400 million per hour.
“The disruption of a week of this size is going to continue to have cascading effects … it’s got to be at least 60 days before things get sorted out and appear to be a bit back to normal,” said Stephen Flynn, professor of political science at Northeastern University.
Supply chains were further damaged because they were already suffering the effects of the container shortage due to the COVID-19 pandemic purchasing boom.
Flynn indicated there is massive recovering to accomplish.
“It’s never been stressed this badly before, and it’s going to take a really long time, and they’re just beginning the process of sorting it out,” he said.
Nearly 19,000 ships passed through the canal during 2020, according to the Suez Canal Authority.
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