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Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

reuters.com

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Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#231

Post by koheripbal »

hilbert42 wrote: post #149
foxes wrote: post #86

What a surprise it didn’t need nuclear ordinance or building giant elaborate dams or millions of helicopters.

It's been blocked before but for a lot longer (from late 1956 to early 1957—about five months) during the Suez Crisis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis That was a really big deal—more so than this one, I still remember the daily radio news reports and huge newspaper headlines from when I was a young kid. It was an international crisis that dragged on for months and months.

I think this incident really highlights how easily the Suez can be blocked.

A well hidden explosive charge on a container ship in the canal could cause a multi-month blockage - perhaps longer.

It would probably be smart to dig a 2nd channel.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#232

Post by nradov »

signal11 wrote: post #167
JosephRedfern wrote: post #62

Lots of articles quote a $XXX billion dollars per day figure, but those numbers are normally for "worth of goods delayed" which, while interesting, doesn't tell the story to me. Are there any estimates as to the actual cost of this "mishap", due to e.g. spoilage, financial/contractual repercussions of late deliveries, personnel/fuel costs?

I'd start by computing the number of ships that went around the Southern tip of Africa as a result of the stuck ship. I wonder how much the cost of extra fuel and food/pay for all of those ships doing additional miles will be? And the resulting increase in wholesale/retail costs? Regarding penalties re late delivery, I'm less worried about that. Cargo ships always have language about loss and force majeure. I think a…

Grain is usually carried by bulkers, not in containers.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#234

Post by leereeves »

turing_complete wrote: post #117

Good thing hacker news doesn't run large civil engineering projects.

I remember people in that discussion saying the high tide might help and suggesting pumping water around the boat to remove the sand. The HN discussion included the right answer, among a lot of more entertaining ideas.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#235

Post by EricE »

craftinator wrote: post #65
jeremymcanally wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, if we’re being honest, a pack of software nerds on a website don’t have the deep expertise on every topic like they think they do (speaking as a software nerd on a website myself :)). The stuff that gets posted here sometimes is...fascinating.

To be fair, there were a number of people chiming in who were claiming to be experienced in that area (ex Navy captains, people who did dredging ops, etc). One of the big things that changed the timeline was that the highest tide of the month occurred yesterday; if not, I imagine that ship would be stuck for another month!

Yes - Mother Nature deserves the lions share of credit for extraditing the ship!

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#236

Post by tim333 »

koheripbal wrote: post #231
hilbert42 wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's been blocked before but for a lot longer (from late 1956 to early 1957—about five months) during the Suez Crisis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis That was a really big deal—more so than this one, I still remember the daily radio news reports and huge newspaper headlines from when I was a young kid. It was an international crisis that dragged on for months and months.

I think this incident really highlights how easily the Suez can be blocked. A well hidden explosive charge on a container ship in the canal could cause a multi-month blockage - perhaps longer. It would probably be smart to dig a 2nd channel.

Then the terrorists would need two bombs! But I think they will extend the 2nd channel - some is done already.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#237

Post by auiya »

ziml77 wrote: post #43

I wonder how much the couple of excavators helped. I saw people on HN saying having two measly excavators was just to give the appearance of doing something and not an actual attempt to get the boat unstuck. But when I saw a photo of the digging, it looked like there was some serious progress made.

Aye by dredge boats running massively large slurry pumps. My partner works for a company that manufactures said pumps, they can MOVE SOME SLUDGE. Think the same sort of setup they use for underwater gold mining, but on a way way more massive scale. You can literally stand up inside some of the impellers they make.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#239

Post by inetknght »

ramblerman wrote: post #193
JosephRedfern wrote: post #62

Lots of articles quote a $XXX billion dollars per day figure, but those numbers are normally for "worth of goods delayed" which, while interesting, doesn't tell the story to me. Are there any estimates as to the actual cost of this "mishap", due to e.g. spoilage, financial/contractual repercussions of late deliveries, personnel/fuel costs?

What does such a number mean without context? Imagine a toy example: 2 bakers in a street. John and Jill. John has a heart attack and his bakery is closed for the week. - John gets nothing that week, from his perspective you could say he lost a week of sales - The people in the street lose Johns cakes that week, but most are ok with going to Jill, as they are close enough. 50% go to jill, and the other 50 decide to s…

Not only does Jill gain 50% of John's customers for the week, but let's say that 20% of those customers decide that they actually prefer Jill's goods and stay as customers of Jill even after John has re-opened.

Re: Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

#240

Post by shagie »

gambiting wrote: post #215
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About the cargo part - it's entirely possible that some cargo is non-viable. It is going to be onboard days longer than predicted. Anything even faintly perishable may be degraded. But good news for sure!

Container ships can easily have an unpredicted wait of 1-2 weeks just entering port, happens all the time and isn't major news. Few days in the Suez canal isn't going to do anything to cargo.

While the Ever Given may not have an issue, the HAJH AMINA which is waiting in the Great Bitter Lake is a livestock carrier that should have been unloading in port yesterday.
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