It was, in a more global way, revitalised when MV Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week. The container ship — hardly an adequate description for such a monster — has been refloated and traffic will resume immediately. About 15% of world shipping sails through it each year earning $5.6bn for Egypt in 2020. The importance of those links is underlined by soaring ocean container rates on Asia-Europe, the old EIC routes, were around $1,200 at this time last year. For lots of reasons, economic or environmental, diverting to air freight is not a realistic option.

Source: Irish Examiner March 30, 2021 07:07 UTC