The Ever Given's blockage of the Suez Canal

The Ever Given, a 400-meter container ship capable of carrying more than 20,000 shipping containers, lost maneuverability in high winds and a sandstorm while transiting the Suez Canal on March 23, 2021, and ran aground diagonally across the waterway, completely blocking one of the world's most important trade routes. The canal normally carries roughly 12% of global seaborne trade, and its closure quickly backed up more than 430 vessels waiting at either end, with each additional day of delay tying up an estimated 0.5% of global shipping capacity in stalled queues. Salvage crews, aided by dredgers and an unusually high tide, finally freed the ship on March 29, after six days of blockage that held up an estimated $9 billion in trade each day it lasted. Clearing the resulting backlog of ships took until early April, and analysts warned the disruption's ripple effects on already-strained pandemic-era supply chains would linger for months, feeding into the broader global shipping congestion and inflation pressures of 2021.