Massive ship freed, sailing, as traffic set to resume in Suez Canal
The Panama-flagged ship, Ever Given, was seen moving slowly after a successful towing attempt making use of the high tide in a narrow stretch of the canal where the mammoth vessel got stuck on Tuesday.
Live TV footage showed the 400-metre-long mega-ship returning to its normal position.
The vessel was then heading to the Great Lakes area, a wider section of the canal, for technical inspection, Egyptian privately owned TV Extra News reported.
The vessel was followed by a flotilla of tug boats as sirens were sounded in celebration of its full reflotation.
Egypt's state Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said efforts to refloat the vessel were successful but did not provide details.
It was not immediately clear when traffic would resume in the waterway through which around 12 per cent of world trade passes.
Earlier Monday, Ever Given was partially refloated.
The high tide overnight accompanied by a full moon aided in the efforts to dislodge the ship at around 4:30 am (0230 GMT) on Monday, maritime service provider Inchcape Shipping said.
"The course of the vessel has been readjusted significantly by 80 per cent. The vessel's stern has moved away from the canal bank by 102 metres," SCA head Osama Rabae said in a statement earlier Monday.
A new towing attempt was launched at noon, which fully unwedged the ship loaded with around 18,000 containers.
The tanker veered off its course on Tuesday when the crew lost visibility during a sandstorm, resulting in a huge traffic jam.
The blockage of the canal by the ship, which is almost as long as New York's Empire State Building, disrupted supply chains and sent ripples through global markets as it remained wedged across the waterway.
According to the canal authority, around 370 ships were waiting for passage on both sides of the canal, including 25 oil tankers.
The canal will work round the clock to clear a backlog of the vessels anchoring in the waterway's waiting areas, Rabae said.
He added that traffic could restart later Monday.
"By [Monday] night, traffic, God willing, can resume if things go well," the official said earlier in the day.
Some shipping companies have already rerouted their vessels to avoid the canal. International shipping firm, Maersk Group, said it had redirected 15 vessels around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.
Maersk on Monday predicted that clearing the backlog of vessels could take at least six days for the "complete queue to pass, conditional to safety and other operational circumstances."
The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, provides the shortest shipping route between Asia and Europe.
The blockage was costing the canal operator 13 million to 14 million dollars in losses per day, according to SCA officials.
At least 18,840 ships passed through the canal last year.
The Suez Canal provides one of Egypt's main sources of income, alongside tourism and remittances from expatriates.
