Companies Consider Alternative Routes, Assess Costs as Suez Canal Blockage Continues.

[elleng]

Heineken and Ducati Motor are among the businesses watching for impacts.

'European and international companies are bracing for possible rising costs and growing supply-chain complications as the blockage of the Suez Canal heads into a fourth day amid signs of still longer backlogs.

Retail and manufacturing importers are watching for delays in their supply chains that already are strained by global disruptions, and some are considering alternative routes, including sending goods using pricier airfreight or on ships sailing around Africa, which could stretch out deliveries by as long as two weeks.

“We are keeping an eye on the situation,” a spokesman for Dutch brewing giant Heineken NV said, adding that a few of the company’s containers are delayed. “We feel comfortable for now with the contingencies we have in place,” the spokesman said.'>>

https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-consider-alternative-routes-assess-costs-as-suez-canal-blockage-continues-11616693465

(For info; sorry can't open further.)

[Warpy]

1. Some of the pictures are amazing

This one gives an idea of the scale of this mess as they struggle to dig a trench deep enough to refloat the ship on the next high tide.

[2naSalit]

2. I'm glad that I am...

Not the operator of that digger! That looks like terribly unstable ground.

[Warpy]

3. It's sand

I think they'll probably have to bring in a dredger and then tugs to tow the thing off.

The bottom is probably tight enough, traffic through the canal is usually very slow, passage seems to take a very long time in the time lapse videos taken from container ships taking that route.

[2naSalit]

5. I can see that it's sand...

Not a job I would take as sand doesn't always stay stable under a lot of weight in a rig like that. I watched one get swamped during a dam collapse it was trying to mitigate, just my nervous Nelly operator sense telling me what a dangerous situation that could be.

[progree]

4. Why not just dig a canal around it ... enthusiastic labor is available

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Courtesy: Nevilledog https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215267109