Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Suez Canal says traffic in channel resumes after stranded ship refloated

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

481–490 of 593 posts

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

#481

Post by garaetjjte »

maxerickson wrote: post #262
EricE wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Of course each meter of depth is a little harder, but not that much harder. lol - cut and fill on a slope is not trivial. It’s more of an exponential function than a linear one for the amount of material removed the deeper you have to go down. They dodged a HUGE bullet with the highest tides happening this weekend. If they had gone beyond a Tuesday with the drop in tides each day as the moon got further away it woul…

The seasonal variation in the tides is like 20 centimeters. The draft of the ship is more than 10 meters at the bow.

Yeah, but on ship this size 400x60x0.2=4800 tons of difference! I'm somewhat exaggerating because ship hull isn't cuboid, but it is still likely equivalent to removing around hundred containers.

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

#482

Post by ghouse »

superjan wrote: post #413
exikyut wrote: post #90

Oh hey, they fixed it, - without destroying or imposing significant additional damage to any of the cargo - without destroying or imposing significant additional damage to the ship - without taking multiple weeks - without needing to ship a trillion dollars'+ worth of equipment halfway around the world It's refreshing to see high-end engineering performed so competently.

What I wonder about: how is such a rescue contract negotiated? There is likely willingness to pay, but it is difficult to judge what a reasonable price is, and it may not even be clear who is culpable in advance. Do they have contracts in advance with the shipping companies?

So, like paying for emergency healthcare in the United States.

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

#483

Post by TheSkyHasEyes »

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?

It's too soon to determine this right now.

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

#484

Post by craftinator »

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?

According to this paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the average loss of value per day of delay from the cargo on these ships is between 0.6 and 2.2 percent [1]. According to other research I've seen, somewhere between 12% and 30% of daily global sea trade goes through the Suez Canal. Anyone want to do the math?

1) https://www.nber.org/digest/jun12/time-trade-barrier

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

#486

Post by mgfist »

Raineer wrote: post #416
EricE wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

High tide did more than anything. If it had gone beyond Wednesday they likely would have been screwed as the high tide was set to start dropping each day after Tuesday. Good thing they started dredging right away.

I just adore that us little humans got our big boat stuck in the sand and uncle moon had to reach down and fix it for us.

Auntie Luna

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

#487

Post by tmathmeyer »

DangerousPie wrote: post #451
superjan wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I wonder about: how is such a rescue contract negotiated? There is likely willingness to pay, but it is difficult to judge what a reasonable price is, and it may not even be clear who is culpable in advance. Do they have contracts in advance with the shipping companies?

I would assume that Egypt paid. They have by far the biggest incentive to clear the canal asap. They will presumably now enter a lengthy legal dispute to try and get their money back from the shipping company.

My understanding is that the Suez Canal Authority will have to pay, but also that the SCA requires the use of "pilot" captains that maneuver the boats through the canal, which means that the issue was squarely the fault of the SCA.

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

#488

Post by playingchanges »

gt565k wrote: post #474
throwawayfire wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The disruption will have introduced hypotheticals In general, temporary disruption has some long-term positive economic effects (which is directly why 'disruption' is valued in Silicon Valley). For example, during London Tube Strikes, commuters find different and more efficient routes and 5% ended up permanently changing their route on public transport: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/tube-strike..…

This happened with the bridge collapse on I-85 in Atlanta [1] I used to take the access road parallel to the bridge and avoid a lot of traffic that was south bound. When the bridge collapsed and I-85 was blocked off, everyone learned about the parallel access road, and it now became a cluster of a traffic hot zone too. Prior to that, a lot of people were not aware of the alternate route. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/…

I’ve seen this happen to a lot of my favorite shortcuts in the east bay since the introduction of waze.

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

#489

Post by VBprogrammer »

dmalvarado wrote: post #476
thisisbrians wrote: post #342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They built a computer model to try and manage the stress on the ship as they worked to free it. It was not straightforward as the ship could have broken if they weren't extremely careful. They also had divers inspecting the hull for signs of stress. This was a massive, complex operation.

Can you image if the hull did weaken to the point of near failure? They might have needed to offload everything right there where it ran aground, lest it completely fail uncontrolled. The canal would be closed for a very long time. Luckily they didn't have to make that call.

The beauty of steel is that it will yield plastically beyond its normal design stress. It would have been possible for them to damage the ship to the point where it required significant repairs but still be capable of exiting the canal.

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

#490

Post by notyourday »

fiedzia wrote: post #438
lisper wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 1974 operation involved ten ships, the largest of which was 6700 tons. The Ever Given displaces 220,000 tons. It's an entirely different beast.

Its large, but its size is limited by sues canal. Ships could be much larger if they were designed for a different route.

Only Qmax and Chinamax are higher.
Post reply on HN