The massive container ship that was blocking the Suez Canal for nearly a week is, at last, on the move.
Officials on Monday said the MV Ever Given has been freed after it became stuck in the Suez Canal last Tuesday and was blocking traffic ever since, The New York Times reports. The ship had earlier been partially dislodged, and videos on Monday showed it moving.
"I am excited to announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given on 29 March at 15:05 hrs local time, thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again," Peter Berdowski, CEO of the salvage firm Boskalis, said, per NBC News.
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There was previously some concern that the blockage, which was costing an estimated $400 million an hour, could potentially take weeks to clear. But the Times writes that salvage teams that had been working to free the ship were "ultimately assisted by forces more powerful than any machine rushed to the scene: the moon and the tides."
Still, according to Axios, the container shipping company Maersk warned Monday that the blockage "triggered a series of further disruptions and backlogs in global shipping that could take weeks, possibly months, to unravel."
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