Bulk carrier grounds along the Suez Canal 

A 56,708 dwt supramax bulk carrier grounded early this morning along the Suez Canal with ships then backing up behind it. The ship was refloated nearly four hours after it ran into difficulty.

The Hong Kong-flagged Xin Hai Tong 23 ran aground at KM 159 at the canal’s southern end at around 0400 hours, according to Leth Agencies.  MarineTraffic showed the ship’s stern wedged into the eastern bank of the canal. 

Four tugboats were deployed to the scene and managed to free the ship at 0740 hours this morning. A convoy that had originally been planned to transit at 0600 hours was rescheduled to move three and a half hours later than planned.