A Panamanian-flagged Chinese cargo ship, the Chang-Ci, was freed from the Suez Canal on Monday, and Egypt's president hailed the rescue operation as a "success".
By then, the canal's congestion had finally begun to ease, but the damage had been done.
Just as the flapping of a butterfly's wings can trigger a storm thousands of miles away, the giant freighter's careening and running aground on a canal not only "blocked" the path of more than 300 ships, but also had perhaps more impact on the global goods supply chain than anyone expected.
A heavy cargo ship flying the Panamanian flag ran aground in the New Passage of the Suez Canal on March 23, causing traffic jams.
[The "Butterfly Effect" of Blocking Heart]
Located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa, the Suez Canal connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
The canal, which opened in 1869, is one of the busiest shipping routes in the world and a key hub for trade between Europe and Africa.
The "big jam" has been described as the worst grounding of a freighter in the canal's history.
As the rescue clock ticks down, more ships are stuck and the economic costs continue to rise, leaving global supply chains "stuck in the throat".
Some foods may be put out beyond their expiration date;
For people in Europe and the US who hoarded toilet paper during the COVID-19 outbreak, such bad feelings are likely to repeat when supplies of wood pulp are blocked and daily necessities such as toilet paper may be in short supply.
The stagnation of coffee ships may affect people's ability to drink coffee in time.
Some are facing delays in ordering high-end Italian motorcycles;
Trapped ships carrying sheep and other animals may pose ecological risks;
Fuel shipments to Syria have been delayed;
Even the movement of US warships in nearby waters has been affected...
The accident illustrates the subtleties of the butterfly effect in an age of globalisation.
The picture shows a large number of ships anchored at the entrance to the Suez Canal
Estimates suggest that each day the canal is blocked loses $14m to $15m in revenue;
Allianz, the German insurance giant, estimates that this could cost global trade between $6 billion and $10 billion a week.
Earlier, Guy Platten, general secretary of the International Maritime Union, said some shipping companies had started rerouting cargo ships to divert them around the Horn of Africa.
That means 3,500 miles and 12 days more sailing time.
According to the world's largest shipping company, Denmark's Moller-Maersk Group, 15 ships have been rerouted to the Horn of Africa to avoid losses.
"The true losses and costs will be difficult to assess until ships are shallowed and trade resumes."
"Noted the BBC.
To be sure, in addition to the impact on the global shipping industry and the Egyptian economy, many businesses, from multinational transport suppliers to retailers, supermarkets and manufacturers, have been affected to varying degrees, and there are other hidden costs besides huge monetary losses.
How to rescue a ship blocked by heavy traffic?
As one of the largest container ships in the world, the Changsi is about 400 meters long, about the height of the Empire State Building in the United States, and weighs about 200,000 tons.
The ship was also carrying 18,300 containers, making it more difficult to escape.
It is no surprise that such a heavy cargo ship "stuck" in the Suez Canal.
Back to six days ago, it was reported that the freighter was sailing at the southern end of the canal when it was hit by a sudden strong wind, causing it to veer off course and run aground.
But on the 27th, Suez Canal Authority head Rabi pointed out that strong winds and weather factors are not the main cause of the ship ran aground, "may be technical or human error caused."
A heavy cargo ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal on March 29 has been successfully lifted with a clear correction of its direction.
According to the latest news, Egypt's Suez Canal Authority said Friday local time, the stranded cargo ship has been freed, the canal traffic will resume.
At present, no fewer than 44 boats are queuing in the canal, and at least 300 boats are queuing at the entrance.
Egyptian authorities said the canal would operate 24 hours a day after the stranded ship successfully floated, and that it would take about three and a half days to clear the current congestion.
The rescue effort will not be "a piece of cake," Peter Bodowski, head of Dutch shipping infrastructure company Boskalis, said earlier.
The complex rescue effort, which lasted nearly a week and involved tugboats and dredging the river, was not easy.
Dredgers, tugboats and diggers have been deployed by the Suez Transport Authority.
Originally, the parties also planned to try to solve the problem by using a combination of methods, such as reducing the weight of the cargo ship and waiting for the tide to rise.
As the rescue operation continues for a giant cargo ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal, the diggers digging up the sand for the ship's bow have become popular.
The image of the digger's stubborn work has been spread around the world by the media, generating a thousand interpretations from a thousand people and a series of online jokes to encourage the excavator's work.
Some netizens pointed out that the excavator turned into a "little ant" in front of the huge cargo ship, just like facing the plight of work and life, the weak strength of their own, "weak, poor, helpless";
But at the same time, it is the unassuming excavator that has ships all over the Eurasian shipping line hoping it will dig out the banks and rescue the stranded ship, even if it is small, sometimes it can play a crucial role.
"When your investment fails, please think about this little excavator, it stops working for one hour, the world will lose hundreds of millions of dollars...
Excavator drivers have also harvested a wave of traffic in the process, setting up social media accounts under the moniker "Suez Digger," with a profile that describes their "motto" : "Try your best, but nothing is guaranteed."
During the rescue, the driver of the excavator also reported the progress of the work to netizens in real time, attracting a large number of fans.
"You know that feeling?"
The driver of the excavator wrote that the rescue effort was like "constantly using your tongue to find food scraps stuck between your teeth";
Even online "ask for a raise", let the net friend repeatedly thumb up.
For now, stalled shipping will gradually resume, but many questions remain.
In the future, how to prevent and mitigate the "big ship jam" in the Suez Canal, whether there is human error in the accident, and how long the impact on the global supply chain and economy will last...
These are all questions that people need to think about.
