The Ever Given ship that has blocked a critical pathway for international trade for nearly a week has finally been freed from the banks of the Suez Canal, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Last Wednesday, the giant container ship went astray during wind gusts of 35 to 40 mph and got both ends stuck in the sand on opposite sides of the Suez Canal. (The Financial Times’ Brendan Greeley has an excellent explainer here regarding the physics of steering giant ships through canals.) With the enormous ship stretching across the entire breadth of the canal, no other ships could pass.

The Suez Canal is the route for approximately 12 percent of all global trade, and about 450 ships have been stuck in the logjam waiting to pass through. Some have already opted for the longer — and far more expensive — route around the entire continent of Africa.

Multiple tugboats had tried to drag the ship to freedom, but were unsuccessful. Diggers have been working along the banks of the canal for days, removing a reported 27,000 cubic meters of sand, and that appears to have been the strategy that allowed the tugboats to pull the Ever Given away from the banks and resume floating again. It is not clear how quickly traffic will be able to resume through the canal, or how long it will take to clear the backlog of ships.

The Suez Canal Authority released footage on Sunday showing workers fighting to free the #EverGiven by removing part of the canal’s bank.

“The coming 24 hours will be crucial,” said Peter Berdowski of Boskalis, which is part of the salvage effort https://t.co/keZiFiLQwU pic.twitter.com/11E82t2YeK

— Bloomberg Quicktake (@Quicktake) March 28, 2021

Egypt’s government had set a deadline of Tuesday to begin unloading the Ever Given if it wasn’t freed by then. Bloomberg is also reporting some damage to the ship’s front, although the vessel is reported to be “stable.”

This is a breaking news story and has been updated.

The post BREAKING: Ever Given Finally Freed In Suez Canal, After Diggers Removed 27,000 Cubic Feet of Sand From Canal Banks first appeared on Mediaite.

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