Suez Canal Authority head says traffic was unaffected by the grounding of the MV Glory vessel.

Leth Agencies said the MV Glory ran aground on Monday near the city of Qantara, in the Suez Canal governorate of Ismailia. The Norwegian shipping agency said canal tugs had refloated the vessel.

Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Chairman Osama Rabie told the Al-Arabiya news outlet that traffic in the canal, one of the world’s main shipping arteries, was unaffected by the grounding of the ship.

Rabie also confirmed that the ship had run aground.

Leth Agencies said minor delays were to be expected after the ship was refloated.

GROUNDING IN SUEZ

M/V GLORY grounded while joining Southbound convoy near to Alaqantarah.

Suez Canal Authority tugs are currently trying to refloat the vessel.

— Leth (@AgenciesLeth) January 9, 2023

Officials had no details on what caused the vessel to run aground. Parts of Egypt, including its northern governorates, experienced a wave of bad weather on Sunday.

Satellite tracking data analysed by The Associated Press news agency showed the MV Glory in a single-lane stretch of the Suez Canal just south of Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea.

MV Glory is not the first vessel to run aground in the crucial waterway. The Panama-flagged Ever Given, a colossal container ship, crashed into a bank on a single-lane stretch of the canal in March 2021, blocking the waterway for six days. The 400-metre (1,310-foot) vessel was loaded with about 18,300 containers.

The Ever Given was freed in a massive salvage operation by a flotilla of tugboats. The blockage created a huge traffic jam that held up $9bn a day in global trade and strained supply chains already burdened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul listed the MV Glory as carrying more than 65,000 metric tonnes of corn from Ukraine bound for China.

The MV Glory was inspected by the Joint Coordination Center on January 3. The centre includes Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian and United Nations staffers.

Opened in 1869, the Suez Canal provides a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo. It also remains one of Egypt’s top foreign currency earners.

In 2015, the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi completed a substantial expansion of the canal, allowing it to accommodate the world’s largest vessels.

The MV Glory is 225 metres (738 feet) long.