“M/V XIN HAI TONG 23 has grounded in the Suez Canal at KM 159/0400 hrs,” Leth Agencies said in a tweet. They said it was “leaving behind 4 vessels from the early convoy in addition to the ordinary group which was planned to enter Suez Canal at about 0600 hrs.”
“Suez Canal tugs are currently trying to re-float the vessel.”
The ship is a bulk carrier, which typically carries cargo. The ship measures some 190m by 32m.
The Ever Given, a colossal container ship that crashed into a bank on a single-lane stretch of the canal in March 2021, blocking the waterway, was bigger.
A massive salvage effort by a flotilla of tugboats, helped by the tides, freed the skyscraper-sized vessel six days later, ending the crisis and allowing hundreds of waiting ships to pass through the canal.
The Suez Canal runs between Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea and Suez on the Red Sea.
It is just 200m wide at its narrowest point. Roughly 30 per cent of the world’s shipping container volume passes through the canal and about 12 per cent of total global trade.
