Egypt: Plan made to use tide to refloat ship blocking Suez Canal

The vessel’s Japanese owner said work crews were hoping to move the ship by taking advantage of tidal movements.

The Japanese company that owns the giant container ship stuck sideways across Egypt’s Suez Canal said an attempt will be made to refloat the vessel by taking advantage of tidal movements on Saturday, as the crisis forced companies to reroute services from the vital shipping lane around Africa. The MV Ever Given, which is longer than four football fields, has been wedged diagonally across the span of the canal – about 6km (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance near the city of Suez – since Tuesday. It is still blocking the waterway in both directions. At a press conference in Japan on Friday the president of Shoei Kisen – which owns the ship – told local media there were no signs of damage to its engines and various instruments.