Crews on Monday freed the massive Ever Given container ship from Egypt’s Suez Canal nearly a week after the 224,000-ton vessel became lodged, halting global trade.
Officials with the Suez Canal Authority shared video on social media announcing that the ship had been successfully floated after days of efforts aimed at dislodging the ship.
“We pulled it off!” said Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, the salvage firm hired to extract the Ever Given, in a statement. “I am excited to announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given … thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again.”
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Officials said the ship was fully refloated after crews dredged about 30,000 cubic meters of sand to help free the vessel. Buoyed by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugboats wrenched the bulbous bow of the Ever Given from the canal bank around 3 p.m. local time Monday.
After the vessel was refloated, the salvage team pulled it toward the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south end of the canal, where the ship will undergo technical inspection, canal authorities said.
The announcement came hours after officials said they had managed to partially refloat the ship.
>> Related: Ever Given container ship ‘partially refloated’ in Suez Canal
It remained unclear when traffic through the canal would return to normal. At least 367 vessels, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, have piled up on either end of the canal, waiting to pass.
The 400-meter Ever Given became lodged in the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most vital maritime arteries, on March 23. Evergreen Marine Corp., a major Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the ship, said the Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned had been overcome by strong winds as it entered the canal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.