Suez Canal temporarily blocked by Panama-flagged ship, traffic restarted

The Suez Canal Authority was forced to temporarily suspend navigation after a Panama-flagged ship ran aground and was stuck for a short while, blocking several vessels from entering the channel in Egypt.

The Coral Crystal container ship was successfully refloated shortly after it became stuck.

Four ships were blocked from entering the canal going towards Suez from Port Said, local media reported.

This was the second time this year that the Suez Canal was blocked by a vessel. In March, the Ever Given – a skyscraper-sized, Panama-flagged vessel – cost companies billions of dollars after it was stuck in the canal for six days.

The ship was on its way to the Dutch port of Rotterdam on March 23 when it slammed into the bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez, according to The Associated Press.

The Suez Canal Authority said it was working on a multi-billion-dollar project to widen sections of the channel to prevent large ships from being trapped again.