Egyptian authorities said on Saturday that the traffic jam that arose when a giant container ship blocked the Suez Canal was cleared.
About 422 ships, visible from space, have now cleared the vital artery, with the last 61 vessels moving through the waterway on Saturday, the Suez Canal Authority said.
The backlog, which was grounded in the narrow canal on March 23, was built up after the massive Ever Given ship was grounded on March 23. It has generated worldwide interest as efforts to reverse have stalled, costing billions of precious world trade. The ship was finally liberated on Monday.
“All guard ships have crossed the shipping course today,” Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, said in a statement.
He added that the clean-up of the backlog had been achieved in ‘record time’.
The 1400-foot-long Ever Given, a cargo ship with the Panama flag higher than the Eiffel Tower, is trapped diagonally across a southern section of the Suez Canal, leaving many cargo and bulk carriers behind, unable to use the key trade route.
International supply chains were wheeled when the boat ran aground, and specialist rescue teams took nearly a week to free her after extensive dredging and repeated towing.
This ship made headlines worldwide and brought memes on social media, while traffic suddenly came to a halt in the important east-west waterway for world shipping – a route that accounts for about 12 percent of world trade and is especially important for transportation of oil.
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The Suez Canal Authority’s investigation began on Wednesday into what caused the vessel to run aground for six days and block the waterway, chairman Rabie told Egyptian MBC Masr private TV late Friday.
“The investigation is going well and will take another two days, then we will announce the results,” he added.
Early reports suggested that strong winds and poor visibility of a sandstorm should be blamed, not a mechanical or engine failure, but the causes are now the subject of a sensational investigation.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Charlene Gubash contributed.