The $5.25 billion expansion of the Panama Canal doubled its capacity in 2016, allowing the world’s largest cargo ships to sail more easily to America’s East Coast from Asia. Now, one of those giant vessels has been stuck near the U.S. capital for more than a week.
Evergreen Marine Corp.’s ship Ever Forward ran aground in the Chesapeake Bay after departing the Port of Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal on March 13 and hasn’t moved since, according to mapping data compiled by Bloomberg.
On Sunday, experts led by the U.S. Coast Guard launched a dredging operation to refloat the 334-meter (1,096-foot) vessel, which was en route to the Virginia International Gateway terminal in Norfolk. So far, the Hong Kong-flagged ship is not disrupting trade.
