CAIRO — Operation resumed at the Suez Canal after a stranded ship was refloated, said an Egyptian official Thursday.

Chairman of the Egyptian Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Adm. Osama Rabie affirmed that navigation at the canal was back to normal, assuring that situation was under control.

The stranded ship — the Coral Crystal, which carried a cargo of 43,000 tons — was temporarily stranded in the canal before being refloated, the SCA chairman affirmed.

Back in March, operations in the Suez Canal came to a scratching halt after the Ever Given tanker was stuck, causing disruption to global shipping operations.

Shipping traffic through Egypt’s Suez Canal resumed only after the giant container ship that had been blocking the busy waterway for almost a week was refloated, the canal authority said.

The 400-meter-long Ever Given became jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal in high winds, halting traffic on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

Shipping rates for oil product tankers nearly doubled after the ship became stranded, and the blockage had disrupted global supply chains, threatening costly delays for companies already dealing with COVID-19 restrictions. — Agencies