Egypt’s SCA: 57 ships crossed Suez Canal after releasing grounded AFFINITY V vessel

CAIRO – 1 September 2022: A total of 57 ships with a total of 3.4 million tons crossed the Suez Canal in both directions on Thursday, as the maritime navigation goes normally after being suspended for 5 hours on Wednesday due to the agrounding of the Singapore-flagged crude oil tanker AFFINITY V in the canal.

Admiral of the Suez Canal Authority Osama Rabie stated that the navigation movement in the canal operates on a regular basis, noting that the number of ships transiting from the north reached 32 ships with a net tonnage of 2 million tons, while 25 ships passed through the new waterway of the canal from the south with a total net tonnage of 1.4 million tons.

 

Rabie affirmed that the SCA employees have rescue expertise and capabilities to deal professionally with potential emergencies.

The Oil tanker AFFINITY V coming from Portugal run aground in the Suez Canal at 7 pm (Cairo time) on Wednesday and was released into its navigational course 5 hours later.

The Affinity V, with a length of 252 meters, was heading to the port of Yanbu in Saudi Arabia when it got stuck in the Suez Canal due to a malfunction in its steering system, the spokesperson for the Suez Canal Authority George Safwat said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

 

Safwat said that the incident blocked the navigational course of the Suez Canal for a short period, ensuring that the authority paid unremitting efforts to release the ship.

On March 23, 2021, the Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal, and the Suez Canal Authority succeeded in floating it six days after the accident, where it was towed to the Bitter Lakes near the city of Fayed in Ismailia Governorate.

The vessel's deviation caused the navigation movement to stop In the canal. The men of the Suez Canal Authority succeeded in floating the ship by using dredging operations close to the ship, for the first time in the world, to re-float it without any unloading of the shipment.

The Ever Given Ship, one of the largest container ships in the world, has a length of 400 meters, a width of 59 meters, and a total tonnage of 224,000 tons.