A cargo ship called ‘The Ever Given’, which was heading to the Netherlands, blocked the Suez Canal — one of the busiest shipping canals in the world, while travelling from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.The Suez Canal
· It is an artificial sea-level waterway running north to south across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
· The canal separates the African continent from Asia.
· The canal is extensively used by modern ships, as it is the fastest crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.
· Tolls paid by the vessels represent an important source of income for the Egyptian government.
· In 2014, it was decided to create a new canal, parallel to the existing one, to convert it into a two-way canal, thus, minimize the waiting time for transiting ships and maximizing revenue.
· The canal was initially controlled by British and French, and later nationalized in 1956 by Egypt.
Strategic importance
· The Suez Canal is one of the most important waterways in the world.
· It provides the shortest maritime route between Europe and the lands lying around the Indian and western Pacific oceans, thereby eliminating the need to circumnavigate Africa to reach Indian Ocean.
· It is one of the world’s most heavily used shipping lanes.
· The canal accounts to over 12% of world trade by volume.
· As per Suez Canal Authority data, in 2020, nearly 19,000 ships, or an average of 51.5 ships per day, with a net tonnage of 1.17 billion tonnes passed through the canal.
How has the blockage affected world trade?
· The canal facilitates flow of oil from Russia to Asia and crude from West Asia to Europe and North America.
· The grounded ship has blocked the movement of other ships that were behind it, which includes five liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers.
· The blockage of 10 million barrels of oil has led to a 2% rise in oil price.
· However, India’s stand in every resolution has differed because of a variety of reasons including the relationship between New Delhi-Colombo, the pressures on coalitions in India, the influence of politics and parties in Tamil Nadu and regional and international geopolitics.
