A beached vessel halted shipping traffic through the Suez Canal in late March, resulting in billions of dollars lost globally. The Suez Canal, an artificial waterway located in Egypt and known as one of the busiest and most efficient trade routes for shipping goods, was the focus of attention starting Mar. 23 when the Ever Given, a quarter-mile-long vessel, got caught on the banks of the narrow passageway during a sandstorm and effectively blocked the path of all other ships. It was nearly a week later on the afternoon of Mar. 29 that the ship was freed and travel continued, but the damage it caused will be long lasting.

The canal provides a perfect channel to traverse from Asia and the Middle East to Europe and the East Coast of the United States, which is why about 12 percent of the world’s trade volume passes through the waterway. Due to the beached vessel, more than 300 ships were prevented from using the canal, with some deciding to go around the southern tip of Africa instead, costing themselves time and thousands of dollars a day in extra fuel costs. Not only that, but the traffic jam cost up to $9 billion a day in global trade, with the canal suffering a loss of $12 million to $15 million daily, as well.

While global trade has remained steady since the ship’s freedom, the hefty cost of the blockage will likely fall onto the subsidiary of Imabari Shipbuilder, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, since the Ever Given, which is part of the Taiwanese-based Evergreen Line, is owned by the subsidiary. 

The salvage effort itself centered its schedule largely on the tides, with crews attempting to make progress between the time it took for the water to go from its low to high point. A full moon on Sunday, plus numerous dredgers, tugboats, engineers and machine operators, along with divers monitoring the ship’s state, all resulted in the successful rescue of the Ever Given.

“Egyptians have succeeded today in ending the crisis of the stuck ship in the Suez Canal despite the great complexities surrounding this situation in every aspect,” President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt announced on Twitter following the accomplishment.

With the same enthusiasm, ships and tugboats alike blared their horns in celebration after the triumphant team effort, marking the beginning of regained buoyancy just as much as a regained stability of global trade.