CAIRO—The vast container ship that was blocking the Suez Canal for six days has now been freed and is moving north to an anchor point, paving the way to open the critical waterway and end days of global supply delays.
Engineers raced throughout Monday to finish the job of freeing the Ever Given after partially refloating the ship at dawn, taking advantage of an unusually high tide to make the job easier. Tugboats helped pull the vessel out from the side of the canal where it had been stuck, before straightening its heading. It slowly began to move, with the objective of later reaching an anchor point at a lake further up the canal system. It is as yet unclear when the waterway will be reopened to traffic.
Egyptian television images showed tugboats blaring their horns as they towed the Ever Given while Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, which runs the channel, announced it had been successfully freed.
“Ship transits will likely resume today,” said another person involved in the operation. “We are looking at giving priority to livestock vessels because they are running out of supplies for the animals.”
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi cast the operation as a national triumph in remarks he posted to Twitter earlier Monday.
