Highlights
Malta-flagged Seavigour heading for China
Traffic heading north had been disrupted a few hours
Traffic both ways in the Suez Canal has returned normal after the Seavigour oil tanker was successfully towed out of the way following its earlier break down, the Suez Canal Authority said in a June 4 statement on its website.
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Traffic heading north along the route was held up until three tugboats could successfully move the tanker, the SCA said in a statement a few hours earlier in the day when the tanker broke down.
Local media reported the ship was heading from Russia to China.
The Malta-flagged, 158,566 dwt tanker controlled by Thenamaris Ships Management was carrying 1.1 million barrels of crude, Kpler ship-tracking showed. An email to the company in Greece was not immediately returned during off hours.
The Suez Canal is one of the world's most critical commodity chokepoints, connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean. Almost 10% of total seaborne oil trade and 8% of global LNG trade passes through the waterway, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.
On June 4, the SCA said that 60 ships crossed the canal in both directions, carrying a total of 3.5 million mt of goods.