I just learned of this as a H/T from our friend Ad Rem. The Suez Canal is blocked completely to traffic in both directions, and so far efforts to remove the container ship have been unsuccessful.
Here’s our favorite, Juan Browne, explaining what has happened.
Unless this can be corrected soon, there will be shortages of certain commodities shipped from the far east. It is reported that ships are already changing course to the Cape of Good Hope, adding many days to the usual time required. More info from Zero Hedge:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/suez-canal-crisis-morphs-global-supply-chain-wrecking-ball
Here’s today’s overview of the continued logjam at the Suez Canal:
- At Least 20 Vessels Carrying Livestock Stuck At Canal
- IKEA Warns Containers Filled With Goods Blocked By Suez Crisis
- Vessels Already Diverting Course from Suez Canal To Cape Of Good Hope
- US Navy Arrives Saturday To Assess Ever Given
- 300 Vessels Waiting To Traverse Canal
- Tanker Rates For Suezmax Vessels climb to $17k Per Day
- Suez Blockage Results In Rising Container Prices From China To Europe
- Tugboats And Dredging Ships Were Unsuccessful In Refloating Ever Given
- Bloomberg Report Process To Refloat Ever Given Could Take Until Next Wednesday
- Shoei Kisen, The Japanese Owner Of Ever Given, Aims To Dislodge Vessel From Canal Bank By Saturday
- Suez Canal Authority (SCA) To Cooperate With US To Refloat Ever Given
Stella's Place 
What a mess.
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What was that old joke about screwing up a one-car funeral procession? 😉
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Another reason to source from our own country! 🙄
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Juan Browne is such a natural at teaching and explaining. I never miss anything he does…..
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The question is…is there anything he can’t talk on? He’s amazing with his ability to put complex info into understandable fare. I ran across his channel some time before the Oroville Dam incident and been hooked ever since.
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I wonder how many captains are completely familiar with traversing the Cape of Good Hope. The Suez not only sliced shipping time but cut out folks having to go around the Cape in terrible weather. This is the weather right now and the forecast…
https://www.worldweatheronline.com/good-hope-weather/eastern-cape/za.aspx
…and it doesn’t seem bad. But doesn’t the Cape have unpredictable patterns or is that Cape Horn, maybe both?
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My first thought when hearing all those ships would have to re-route was the pirates.
Wonder if we’ll hear about the increase in activity by pirates?
Too bad no one has a navy to protect in those waters.
The CCP has purchased most of Africa now anyways, perhaps China will step up.
Our Navy is in stand-down, of course.
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I think the greatest area of pirate activity is in the Indian Ocean on the east side of Africa. I don’t think that piracy would be a big issue in this case.
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A U.S. naval ship of some kind is there right now.
In my ignorance the first thought when hearing of the accident was why not start unloading, not realizing until later that it was such a humongous ship. One of the things I keep reading is that it’s not feasible for the ship to be unloaded because equipment simply is not available. Why the heck not! Plus it would take weeks to unload.
But wouldn’t every little bit help? If they’d started the next day after it happened with equipment borrowed from somewhere, how much lighter would the ship be by tomorrow? That would certainly make it easier to eventually get it off the sand bar and on its way, leaving the removed containers behind to be picked up whenever possible.
And didn’t anyone think of this possibility when allowing these huge ships into the Canal and do some strategic planning? Whoah, the lack of preparation likely means lawsuits are going to be as huge as the ship.
My other thought at first was…how is the CCP going to take advantage of this situation? They already run the Panama Canal, thus controlling delivery of very large amounts of world goods. And did Juan say or did I read somewhere that the crew was not Japanese but Chinese from Taiwan. Uhhuh! Blackmailed with families held until the crew did the CCP’s bidding. Got my tinfoil hat on…LOL!
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Never mind. Ignore my comment, jeans.
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