Press Room

NEOLINK Announcement – Suez Canal Blocked – Delays on EU to AU Shipping – 25.3.21

Thursday 25^th of March 2021

Dear Valued Clients,

I am sure that most of you are aware that overnight the Suez Canal has been blocked by an Evergreen vessel that ran aground.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-25/suez-canal-remains-blocked-by-enormous-cargo-ship/13273336

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/catastrophic-oil-prices-spike-after-grounded-mega-ship-blocks-suez-canal/news-story/19d9322de92f703442b3aecccf8a7ffd

https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/suez-canal-blockage-adds-to-global-supply-chain-chaos-20210325-p57dxi.html

The Suez Canal is used by 95% of the shipping lines that move goods to and from Europe to Asia/Australasia:

Approximately 50 to 60 vessels per day travel through the canal and in the past 24 hours we have seen close to 100 vessels waiting at both ends of the canal due to the blockage.

Maritime engineers and experts have been called in to try to resolve the issue, but as it stands this will cause significantly delays to what is already a very challenging shipping market.

We expect shipping lines to potentially re divert ships/cargo now departing Europe via Cape Agulhas (southernmost point of Africa) to avoid the congestion, but this will add a further week to transit times.

At this stage; NEOLINK Account Managers are working closely with all the shipping lines to identify specifically which vessels are caught up in the blockage so we can start to notify customers.

We will proactively be in touch but if you do have any concerns and want to discuss the situation further, please don’t hesitate to contact any member of the team.

Best regards,

NEOLINK Marketing Team