Suez Canal traffic to resume as cargo ship fully floated

The giant container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week has been fully floated and traffic in the waterway would resume, the canal authority said in a statement.

Witnesses saw the Ever Given moving and a shipping tracker showed it positioned in the centre of the canal.

It had been blocking one of the world’s busiest trade routes, forcing companies to reroute ships and causing long tailbacks of hundreds of vessels.

Helped by the peak of high tide, a flotilla of tugboats managed to wrench the bulbous bow of the Ever Given from the canal’s sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since last Tuesday.

After hauling the fully laden vessel over the canal bank, the salvage team was pulling the vessel toward the Great Bitter…