One of the world's largest container ships, officially classed as Ultra Large got stuck on Tuesday as it struggled through a sandstorm while transiting the Suez canal. It battled poor visibility and, possibly, a failure of its navigation equipment caused by a power failure.
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The Panama-flagged Ever Given found itself stuck at 90 degrees in the canal, blocking hundreds of ships trying to transit the trade artery.
The ship's gargantuan Golden-Class container vessel engines – capable of generating a total of 80,000 horsepower – were of little use getting it free.
Egyptian authorities first said on Wednesday that it may take two days to move the ship. Yet, within hours, the ship was partially refloated and although it is yet to be cleared progress is being made.
This has not been sufficient to fully open the channel however and there are now fears the shipping route will be partially shut for days or even weeks.
Here is how Egyptian authorities are working around the clock to free the vessel and get trade flowing again.
Tugs and dredgers from Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority are doing the heavy lifting to try and defy expectations of a lengthy canal closure.
“To get her back in the right direction, they clearly need a lot of tugs. It initially looked like it would take a few days; hence shipping rates and oil went up in the short term,” said Dean Mikkelson, a maritime security analyst.
“Convoys and traffic are expected to resume as soon as the vessel is towed to another position,” read a statement from the ship’s owner, on Wednesday afternoon.
Witnesses reported trade vessels starting to make the journey shortly after, but this has been intermittent.
Mr Mikkelson said a “worst-case scenario” could involve extensive dredging and, potentially, removing some of the ship’s 20,000 metal cargo containers.
“There are tides on this side of the canal due to the Red Sea,” he said, noting that if the ship was trapped farther into the canal, it could have been a disaster.
Mr Mikkelson cautions that further complications lie ahead.
"I can't see how they could do a ship-to-ship transfer of the containers, because there is too much traffic already to the south and north of the Ever Given," he said.
"Tide and tugs makes the most sense."
Soon enough, a flotilla of small tugs arrived, the most powerful of which, the Baraka 1, equipped with almost 16,000 horsepower, or 130 tonnes of "bollard pull" – the standardised measure of how much a tug can pull.
Tugs Mosaed Two and Mosaed Three soon followed, with an additional 140 tonnes of bollard pull combined, according to details on the Suez canal authority website.
They are much smaller than the most powerful tug in the world, the Far Sampson, designed by British company Rolls Royce, that has a bollard pull of 423 tonnes.
At the front of the vessel, excavators removed earth from the channel to help free up the ship's stem so that it could pivot in the waterway.
Between this and the tugs, they managed to free the massive container ship despite the assembled pulling vessels having only a fraction of the force needed to tow such a goliath.
Low tides overnight Wednesday slowed work but authorities said they hope to be done on Thursday, when tides are higher.
While other ships can soon pass, it is unclear when the Even Given will continue its journey.
A tough struggle lies ahead for the Egyptians to fully move the vessel.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
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Company%20profile
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
'Cheb%20Khaled'
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Disability on screen
Empire — neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis; bipolar disorder; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Rosewood and Transparent — heart issues
24: Legacy — PTSD;
Superstore and NCIS: New Orleans — wheelchair-bound
Taken and This Is Us — cancer
Trial & Error — cognitive disorder prosopagnosia (facial blindness and dyslexia)
Grey’s Anatomy — prosthetic leg
Scorpion — obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety
Switched at Birth — deafness
One Mississippi, Wentworth and Transparent — double mastectomy
Dragons — double amputee
