[HN Gopher] Suez Canal blocked briefly as container ship runs ag...
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       Suez Canal blocked briefly as container ship runs aground
        
       Author : lindenstark
       Score  : 80 points
       Date   : 2021-09-09 11:27 UTC (11 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.thenationalnews.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.thenationalnews.com)
        
       | anshumankmr wrote:
       | I am looking forward to the memes.
       | 
       | On a more serious note, I hope it is resolved ASAP.
       | 
       | EDIT: Looks like it has been resolved
       | https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/egypt/2021/09/09/breaki...
        
         | lindenstark wrote:
         | that was fast, updated title.
        
       | zarq wrote:
       | Have the worldwide trade delays from the blockage with the Ever
       | Given been resolved?
        
         | gbear605 wrote:
         | From my understanding, the direct delays are resolved (ships
         | are moving normally through the canal) but there are global
         | delays that could be indirectly caused by the Ever Given or
         | lots of other issues (understaffing at ports, closed ports in
         | China due to COVID, high shipping demand, etc.). It's hard to
         | say whether the current delays would be a lot better if the
         | Ever Given incident hadn't occurred, although they presumably
         | would be at least somewhat better.
        
         | asdff wrote:
         | The delays are happening at every interface. The port of LA/LB
         | is the busiest port in north America and has dozens and dozens
         | of container ships anchored off the coast waiting to unload.
         | Even if they unloaded the ships today they couldn't move the
         | containers off the terminal holding facilities since freight
         | rail and freight trucking is at capacity. This is why caltrans
         | has been desperate to widen freeways leading to the port and
         | link the 710 in Pasadena, and to expand the alameda freight
         | rail corridor. Freeway widening doesn't help commute times any
         | but it leads to more trucks per hour leaving the port due to
         | the increased throughput, which is only going to get busier
         | over the next century.
        
         | karaterobot wrote:
         | The delays caused by that specific blockage may have been
         | resolved, but overall shipping delays continue to rise, as they
         | were even before Ever Given. One big driver for that is ports
         | being closed in China due to workers getting sick with Delta,
         | but also just general lack of manpower related to the
         | quarantine.
        
       | IkmoIkmo wrote:
       | Was this another close call major issue indicating a new pattern,
       | or was this one of tens of minor incidents that typically
       | happened in Suez and didn't get reported on until Ever Given?
       | 
       | Not that the two are necessarily mutually exclusive but it's
       | likely leaning hard towards one of the two.
        
         | lindenstark wrote:
         | Only around ~75 incidents reported this decade [0], so it's
         | fairly uncommon. Definitely getting more attention now because
         | of last time though.
         | 
         | [0] (slightly outdated)
         | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-24/suez-bloc...
        
           | kbutler wrote:
           | 75/decade == 1 every 7 weeks
           | 
           | Sounds pretty common, or as the grandparent said, "tens of
           | minor incidents that...didn't get reported on"
        
             | lindenstark wrote:
             | when put into perspective that is pretty frequent, ~0.02%
             | chance per ship.
        
               | lavoiems wrote:
               | Put differently, we had an average of 7.5 incidents per
               | year in the last decade.
        
               | lindenstark wrote:
               | ya, I wonder what the risk is of getting stuck long term
               | like earlier this year. According to the wikipedia page
               | it looks like it has only happened a few times in
               | history.
        
               | gonational wrote:
               | Given that MV Ever Given drew a penis and balls outside
               | the canal[1] before entering, I suspect there is a chance
               | the jam was not an accident.
               | 
               | 1. https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_605c2e44c5b67ad3871
               | c9afe
        
       | beaudin wrote:
       | I have a mentor who was prominent in the ship holding space and
       | as with technology, requirements as well as desire for cost
       | savings (bigger ships) is taking place while the infrastructure
       | (canal) has had minimal change. It's the classic
       | bottleneck/theory of constraints principle. Watching to see how
       | the canal adapts/evolves.
        
       | styluss wrote:
       | Was blocked
        
       | KoftaBob wrote:
       | "They said it took 15 minutes for tug boats swiftly dispatched to
       | the site to refloat the vessel and allow south-bound vessels
       | stuck behind it to resume their journey.
       | 
       | "It was a minor traffic issue that was resolved in less than an
       | hour," a senior Suez Canal official told The National on
       | condition of anonymity.
       | 
       | Since the 'Ever Given' incident, the canal authority have
       | announced a multi-billion dollar project to widen sections of the
       | canal and install other infrastructure to ensure that no other
       | large ships can run aground in the same manner again."
       | 
       | Glad to see that it was resolved quickly, and that the canal is
       | being upgraded to make it more resilient to things like that.
        
       | keyboardCowBoy wrote:
       | There's still more Biden money to go around.
        
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       (page generated 2021-09-09 23:03 UTC)