For a week the world was gripped by the extraordinary sight of a massive container ship that had run aground in the Suez Canal in Egypt. The Ever Given is 400-metre long and weighs 200,000 tonnes, with a maximum capacity of 20,000 containers. It was carrying 18,300 containers when it became wedged in the canal, blocking all shipping traffic. Efforts to free it finally paid off when it was partially dislodged in the early hours of March 29. Adejuwon Soyinka asked maritime security expert Dirk Siebels to unpack lessons learnt from the incident.
What maritime lessons can be learnt from this incident?
Choke points: The shipping industry provides an extremely efficient link to ensure just-in-time deliveries. This link, however, is largely invisible, underlined by the time it took most countries to classify seafarers as key workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
When choke points are blocked, trade does not necessarily come to a standstill. Under normal circumstances, it is