A Greek-managed bulker was immobilised in the Suez Canal early on Monday but the damage was fixed quickly without affecting traffic on the waterway.
The 76,500-dwt Glory (built 2005) suffered a technical malfunction as it was sailing just south of Port Said, according to tweets by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA).
The SCA’s marine rescue team “dealt professionally with a sudden technical malfunction” of the Glory’s machines, authority chairman Lieutenant General Osama Rabie tweeted.
Target Marine, the Piraeus-based company managing the vessel, dismissed initial reports that the vessel had actually grounded.
“The hull never touched bottom,” a manager with the company told TradeWinds.
The main engine power loss was due to a cooling component leakage, the company said.
The SCA said it sent four tugs with a tensile strength of 95 tons “to deal quickly with the situation”.
Those included the 7,832-bhp Port Said (built 2007), 6,390-bhp Svitzer Suez 1 (built 2021) and 567-gt Ali Shalabi (built 2021), which briefly pushed the vessel alongside the canal's bank.
The Glory's engine failure was repaired in a few hours, with the malfunctioning cooling component having been replaced by a spare onboard.
The vessel would be able to continue its journey once further inspections and investigations are completed.
“There was neither any crew injury nor pollution,” Target Marine said in a statement.
Incidents on the Suez Canal command immediate global attention, since Evergreen’s 20,388-teu Ever Given (built 2018) grounded there in March 2021, bringing parts of world trade to a halt for several days.
In the case of the much smaller Glory, however, significant delays could be avoided.
Ordinary convoy was expected to resumed at 09:00 GMT local time, with 21 southbound vessels resuming transits with only minor delays, Leth Agencies said.
The Glory is carrying Ukrainian grain under the United Nations-run Black Sea Grain Initiative.
According to the Joint Coordination Center of the initiative, the ship left Chornomorsk in Ukraine on Christmas Day, loaded with 65,970 tonnes of corn, heading for China.
((This article has been updated since original publication to include information provided by Target Marine on the nature of the incident))
