Massive container ship that shut down Suez Canal trade tries to sail through again

Here’s hoping they’ve gotten their ship together.

The Ever Given, the massive vessel that got stuck in the Suez Canal, will try to sail through it again Friday after sparking a nearly week-long international shipping disaster, satellite data show.

The Japanese-owned container ship — that caused billions of dollars in trade delays in March — left a port in Egypt and began voyaging through the Red Sea towards the canal with two tugboats early Friday, according to the ship tracking site MarineTraffic.com.

The 242,500-ton behemoth was shown inching toward the narrow waterway alongside dozens of other ships with no apparent trouble as of Friday afternoon.

But all hands better be on deck this time, shipping experts said.

“Fingers crossed… Ever Given nearing Suez Canal again,” one marinetime buff tweeted.

Others pointed out that the ship’s arrival had caused other boats to bolt.

“The Ever Given’s presence has also created a massive surge in ships that suddenly no longer wish to use the Suez Canal and are leaving the area with remarkable swiftness,” another Twitter user said Friday.

The vessel — which caused a six-day nautical traffic jam when it became lodged diagonally in the canal — was eventually pulled out in March by a flotilla of 10 tugboats.

After months of negotiations, it docked several weeks ago at the UK port of Felixstowe  before sailing to Port Said, Egypt, according to The Guardian.

The clogged canal delayed $9 billion each day in global trade and strained supply chains already burdened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ship’s owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, has since argued the canal authority was at fault for allowing the Ever Given into the waterway during a sandstorm, according to the outlet.