By Elyse Cram

On March 23, a 1,312-foot container ship weighing 220,000 tons ran aground 3.7 miles north of the Suez Canal’s southern entrance in Egypt. According to an article by Motoko Rich, Stanley Reed, and Jack Ewing for the New York Times, “The [Ever Given] is as long as the Empire State Building is tall, with the capacity to carry 20,000 containers stacked 12 to 14 high.” USA Today quoted the statement released by the chairman of Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority: “Weather conditions ‘were not the main reasons’ for the grounding… ‘there may have been technical or human reasons.’”

Suez Canal blockage. Image credit: Pierre Markuse via Wikimedia Commons.

The company that owns the Ever Given, government authorities, insurers, and lawyers alike assessed the cause of the incident to determine who was responsible for the financial damage from the crisis. While the final exact financial impact is unknown, there are many factors that contributed to the total.

Bloomberg analyst Aaron Clark estimated that an overwhelming $9.6 billion dollars worth of ship traffic was suspended each day the Ever Given was lodged. This included ships containing time-sensitive deliveries such as produce and livestock, whose value may have been lost completely. Additionally, while a delay in delivery may appear to simply increase wait times for customers, it can have detrimental effects on the businesses awaiting the materials. An article in India Today estimated the total trade loss at roughly $54 billion.

In an interview with BBC News, Jonathan Dul, the managing director of Mirical Emblems, a company that transfers heat-applied prints onto clothing and uniforms, explained, “The pandemic has caused our turnover to fall by 20%. We’ve increased costs due to Brexit, and now we’re having delayed shipments and having to potentially buy materials twice.” Miracle Emblems “can’t afford to upset its clients and affect their supply chains.”

Many companies faced similar challenges. Thomas O’Brien, the managing director of Boxer Gifts, had around 300,000 toys waiting to pass through the Suez Canal. In addition to rumored additional fees, O’Brien explained in an interview with BBC News, “[The situation also] means longer shipping times, less stock availability, [and] more money tied up on goods at sea, rather than in our warehouses… it means more stress.”

Companies such as Mirical Emblems and Boxer Gifts were not the only entities under high stress resulting from the financial effects of the Suez Canal blockage. While hundreds of ships remained in the Suez Canal queue, some sought alternative routes, such as going around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, a journey that requires an additional 3500 nautical miles. According to The New York Times, “The crisis has cost the Egyptian government up to $90 million in lost toll revenue as hundreds of ships waited to pass through the blocked waterway or took other routes.”

A significant amount of money and resources also went into dislodging the Ever Given. Diggers and other excavation equipment worked to free the keel of the ship from the bank of the canal, while dredgers removed sediments from the bottom of the canal underneath the ship. Additionally, 14 tugboats worked to pull the ship free from the sides of the canal. The costs associated with the around-the-clock work done by the diggers, tugboats, and dredgers significantly increased the total cost of the crisis.

One of many memes about the Ever Given. Image credit: Kim Bhasin via Twitter.

Fortunately, the efforts to dislodge the Ever Given from the banks of the Suez Canal were aided by the full moon and subsequent high tides, as the container ship was eventually freed on March 29, six days after it wedged itself into place.

Image credit: Satoshi Archives via Twitter.

Despite being a seemingly serious crisis, members of Gen Z handled the situation the way they tend to handle most significant events: by making jokes about it. TikToks and memes spread like wildfire across the internet, bringing news of the world’s events through a different lens. Additionally, while one may have assumed everyone would be thrilled at the dislodging of the Ever Given after the billions of dollars it cost the global economy, users took to Twitter, and “Put it Back” became a trending topic.