A canal service provider says that workers have successfully set free a colossal container ship that for nearly a week has been stuck sideways across the Suez Canal, one of the world's most crucial arteries for trade.

Leth Agencies said that the vessel had been refloated on Monday. Helped by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugboats managed to wrench the bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the sandy back of the crucial waterway, where it had been firmly lodged since last Tuesday.
Tugboats were pulling the vessel toward the Great Bitter Lake, in the middle of the waterway, where it will undergo inspections.

Earlier today, engineers on Monday "partially refloated" the colossal container ship that continues to block traffic through the Suez Canal, authorities said, without providing further details about when the vessel would be set free.

Satellite data from MarineTraffic.com showed that the ship's bulbous bow, once lodged deep in the canal's eastern bank, had been partly wrested from the shore - although it remained stuck at the canal's edge. The ship's stern had swung around and was now in the middle of the waterway, tracking data showed.

Although the development marked the vessel's most significant movement since getting stuck last week, the salvage crew urged caution as obstacles loomed.

Last Tuesday, the skyscraper-sized Ever Given got stuck sideways in the crucial waterway, creating a massive traffic jam. The obstruction has held up $9 billion each day in global trade and strained supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic. At least 367 vessels, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, were still waiting to pass through the canal, while dozens were taking the lengthy alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip - a detour that costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs.