A ship blocking the Suez canal can cause a major disruption to trade. Ships transit the canal in a convoy system and a prolonged blocking of the canal can cause disruption to the convoy schedule.
On Thursday, April 28, 2016, the containership, MSC Fabiola, ran aground in the Suez Canal. Some of the vessels that should all be moving south through the canal can be seen through Genscape Vesseltracker queued up and stationary behind the MSC Fabiola.
Added time to ship voyages is a major expense for shippers, especially those on charter paying daily rates or incurring penalties if voyages over run. The Suez Canal Traffic Statistics site shows the normal volume of traffic through the canal.
The Suez Canal is the gateway to Europe for much trade, oil from the Middle East, and containerized shipments from Asia mainly all go through the canal. If the canal is blocked for a long period, then the alternative route between Europe and Asia involves going around the Cape of Good Hope, adding over 4,000 miles to the voyage to most European ports. At 15 Knots, that takes an extra 11 days for the journey between the Arabian Gulf and Europe.
As well as saving time, using the canal can save money. The largest single expense for a ship is it’s bunker costs. A large ship doing 15 knots may use 40+ tons of fuel a day and at current bunker rates of about $180 MT this amounts to $72,000 to cover the extra 4,000 miles. Now some of that extra cost would be discounted against canal fees, but it is evident that there are long delays and high costs involved in not using the canal.
The MSC Fabiola blocking southbound traffic can impact all ship operators trading between Europe and Asia in all but the very largest ships that can not transit the canal. Anyone from the cruise industry, oil, gas, and containerized trade are also affected.
Sign up now for alerts on the MSC Fabiola to receive updates through Genscape Vesseltracker. Genscape Vesseltracker currently runs one of the largest privately owned AIS receiver networks on the planet, combined with the largest AIS Satellite constellation currently available, over 144,000 vessels are tracked daily in near real-time. To learn more or request a free trial of Genscape Vesseltracker, please click here.
