Suez blocked.

[johnalison]

That was Malcolm.

But there is, and has been since the earliest days of containerisation, a twice yearly meeting of container line Chief Executives. It is called the Box Club, it seldom gets mentioned and it has one absolute rule - nobody ever mentions business or money.

If anyone ever did the US anti trust people and DG of the EU would be on them like a ton of bricks.

It exists to promote standardisation and interchangeability of ISO containers and their associated equipment.

It works.

If it's the same chap whose obituary I read a few years ago, I seem to remember that the clever bit was designing a standard way of locking containers together, and I seem to remember that he decided not to patent this, with the result that his design was adopted and he made far more money than if it hadn't.

As for the blockage, since dredging is impractical, I would have thought that high-pressure hoses would move more of the ground with relatively little equipment, in the way that the Egyptians did when they demolished an Israeli bank in the Yom Kippur War.

 

[Kukri]

Why is dredging impractical?

 

[BurnitBlue]

Alexander Mercouris a vloger with connections to Greek Shipping says that the Suez canal will lose out eventually to the North Arctic route. Russia and China are building nuclear powered ice breakers to keep the route open 24/365. Asia ships will head north rather thsn Mallaca Straits Suez route. What say you?

 

[penberth3]

If it's the same chap whose obituary I read a few years ago, I seem to remember that the clever bit was designing a standard way of locking containers together, and I seem to remember that he decided not to patent this, with the result that his design was adopted and he made far more money than if it hadn't.

As for the blockage, since dredging is impractical, I would have thought that high-pressure hoses would move more of the ground with relatively little equipment, in the way that the Egyptians did when they demolished an Israeli bank in the Yom Kippur War.

It was a different person who invented the twist-lock. You're right about the patent situation.

 

[Adios]

Alexander Mercouris a vloger with connections to Greek Shipping says that the Suez canal will lose out eventually to the North Arctic route. Russia and China are building nuclear powered ice breakers to keep the route open 24/365. Asia ships will head north rather thsn Mallaca Straits Suez route. What say you?

If anything like half of European imports are offloaded in the med Suez won't be redundant but I can imagine a northern route allowing one way circuits which could be more efficient. I just traced a rough course on google earth and its 8000+ miles going north from Shangai to UK and 12000+ via Suez plus their fees though the ice breakers will cost a lot too. The amount of weight of ice that can be blown though surely no amount of ice breakers will be able to keep it open reliably in the winter? See the turmoil of a few weeks delay in Suez surely that would be a regular thing going north. The good thing about the current route its mostly equatorial

 

[Rappey]

There have been articles about Thailand cutting a canal so ships can avoid the mallaca straights

A friend showed me a German article that showed an ais track of the evergiven before she left the lake , looks like she was going round in circles for a while, but one of the tracks drew out a huge meat and two veg ? .

 

[BurnitBlue]

If anything like half of European imports are offloaded in the med Suez won't be redundant but I can imagine a northern route allowing one way circuits which could be more efficient. I just traced a rough course on google earth and its 8000+ miles going north from Shangai to UK and 12000+ via Suez plus their fees though the ice breakers will cost a lot too. The amount of weight of ice that can be blown though surely no amount of ice breakers will be able to keep it open reliably in the winter? See the turmoil of a few weeks delay in Suez surely that would be a regular thing going north. The good thing about the current route its mostly equatorial

The ice breakers can handle 2 to 3 meters thick ice at 12 knots. I have not even considered the route for a yacht during winter, but it does conjure up dreams of a summer criuse to the Pacific. It avoids having to dodge hurricane season on the normal route. I was thinking that once shipping has opened up the route it may bear consideration since Brexit has cut off the EU from extended cruising.

I have looked at the North West Passage but balked at the convoluted route plus the cold. The top of Russia seems to be cold but taken seriously by organised ice breakers compared to the Canada route. As I wrote ealier on another thread i am just dreaming of an escape route from EU restrictions.

 

[Kukri]

Bellingcat weigh in. Nice cross section graphic but no great insights. Still, seeing that they get something I know a bit about more or less right and are careful not to exaggerate I am more inclined to trust them on other stuff.

Suez Canal: Satellite Clues on a Stricken Cargo Ship - bellingcat

This is the good bit:

 

[onesea]

Did I hear somewhere they have dredged sand from under her bow but she is resting on rock fwd?
Guess that leave potential for ripping her open if they pull her of...

 

[Alicatt]

The RAF have a solution... Courtesy of the BBC

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Microphones still multiplying ...........

 

[newtothis]

That was Malcolm.

But there is, and has been since the earliest days of containerisation, a twice yearly meeting of container line Chief Executives. It is called the Box Club, it seldom gets mentioned and it has one absolute rule - nobody ever mentions business or money.

If anyone ever did the US anti trust people and DG of the EU would be on them like a ton of bricks.

It exists to promote standardisation and interchangeability of ISO containers and their associated equipment.

It works.

Well, there was that one fun moment in the US when the Feds busted into a Box Club meeting all kitted out in their Justice Dept bomber jackets as if the carrier ceos were the Cali cartel.

 

[newtothis]

Maybe. The middle section was dualled in 2015. This allowed convoys to pass each other under way rather than waiting in the Great Bitter Lake, which greatly increased the throughput.

The intention is to dual the lot, when traffic demands justify it, but the work is funded entirely by Egypt with no foreign borrowings, the middle section dualling is still being paid down, and at the moment the traffic does not justify double tracking the whole canal.

The aim of the extension channel was to get transits up to 96 a day, using two southbound convoys and one northbound convoy a day.. But before the latest mishap, total transits in February averaged 50 a day. So even at the busiest period in history for transit demand, even the first extension has yet to justify itself. Don't hold your breath for the extension below the Great Bitter Lake.

 

[newtothis]

I think the Canal is fine as it is. There’s ample room. The hydrodynamics have been carefully studied. But ships are running absolutely full now, which isn’t or wasn’t normal.

To illustrate, here’s our girl coming into Felixstowe in September 2019.

Note the draft and the spaces on deck. This is NOT her first European port.

Ah, 2019, back in the good old days before 95% load factors. ?

 

[newtothis]

Alexander Mercouris a vloger with connections to Greek Shipping says that the Suez canal will lose out eventually to the North Arctic route. Russia and China are building nuclear powered ice breakers to keep the route open 24/365. Asia ships will head north rather thsn Mallaca Straits Suez route. What say you?

Alexander Mercouris don't know what he's talking about. All the major container carriers have sworn off going up north, even those that have done trial runs. Container shipping, in normal times, works of runnings scheduled services. Dealing with the randomness of the arctic ice flow and Russian icebreaker availability is a no go.
There are massive environmental/safety concerns about the Northern Sea route that will keep it out of contention for many decades.

 

[Kukri]

Here’s someone else, who, like Bellingcat, normally covers things that are technically well above my pay grade, but does it well, taking a stab at something I do know a little about.

I think Juan Browne does rather well here. He explains bank effect, why you can’t use helicopters, (hogging and) sagging stresses, and even gets the simple form of the ground effect calculation in, which is more than I have done. Good effort!

 

[Alicatt]

Juan has done some very good reporting, especially on technical issues, he rose to prominence during the Oroville Dam problem giving a no nonsense appraisal of what was happening and cutting out a lot of the histrionics of other news outlets.

 

[penfold]

It's not inexhaustible and better kept for MRI machines!
(Though come to think about it, if we ever get nuclear fusion going rather than being forever 50 years in the future, we could start making helium from plentiful hydrogen...)

Easier to use fission; that's possible today rather than "we'll have it in 20 years".

 

[mjcoon]

Easier to use fission; that's possible today rather than "we'll have it in 20 years".

But fission does not generate helium IIRC, unless alpha particles are included accidentally in radiation?

 

[Kukri]

I am just wondering if the Canal Authority might in future insist on ships of this size having a tug at each end when going through the canal?
Although they might have to throw these tugs in for 'free' (as part of the $1 million fee) so that they do not kill their proverbial container goose that lays the golden eggs.

Apologies to Bajansailor:

He was right

Tugs in the Canal are a bit complicated. There are several different charging scales depending on whether a tug is required or requested the type of ship and the work to be done.

Anyway looking at the AIS data the “Cosco Galaxy”, which is very similar to the “Ever Given” (same age, same size, looks the same, but blue) was immediately ahead of the “Ever Given” and had an escort tug.

Container ships unlike say gas tankers are not required to take an escort tug, but it looks as if the “Cosco Galaxy” chose to take one.

It may be that that was the last tug available of course.

The “Ever Given” and the “Cosco Galaxy” are both in the same “alliance”; the Ocean Alliance.