The blocking of a crucial global trade route, which was built in the mid-19th century, by a modern 220,000-tonne ship as long as the Empire State Building is high has raised questions over the industry’s reliance on such huge vessels.
Salvage experts were on Sunday still working to refloat the Ever Given after it became wedged across the southern entrance to the Suez Canal last week, leaving about 330 vessels stranded on either side and sending tremors through global supply chains.
Shipowners accelerated their adoption of larger and larger ships to handle the continuing expansion of world trade in the 1990s. The largest container shipping vessels have quadrupled in size during the past 25 years.