THE 20,388-TEU Ever Given was refloated in the early hours of Monday morning, according to Inchcape Shipping Services, according to media reports.

The giant 400m-long (1,300ft), 200,000-tonne vessel will have an initial assessment for damages. The ship's engines are running, and sources on site say the ship is fully mobile, but the decision has been made to take the ship under tow to the Bitter Lake to the north.

A total of 15 tugs were used in a huge overnight operation, making the most of a spring tide. Dredging around the the bow area overnight had given the waterway's eastern bank a depth of 18m to facilitate the floatation of the ship.

The bow of the ship was wedged five metres deep into the eastern bank of the canal last Tuesday when it ran aground amid high winds and a sandstorm that affected visibility.

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) will soon be in a position to start to get convoys underway to move the hundreds of ships waiting at either end of the vital waterway linking Europe with Asia, reports Singapore's Splash 247.

"The Suez Canal traffic will resume later today on a first arrive, first transit basis ut probably livestock vessels will get priority for obvious reasons," a well placed source said.

As of yesterday morning there were 367 ships waiting to transit the Suez Canal in both directions according to Leth Agencies. Last year, the daily number of ships transiting the canal was 51, although the authorities have the resources to ensure this daily figure is doubled.

The potential transit backlog from Tuesday's grounding of the Ever Given could take a week to 10 days to work through. The acute pain points will then be felt at onward ports, especially in Europe. Ports will be facing three or four times the amount of ships they had planned for daily in the coming fortnight.

About 12 per cent of global trade passes through the 193km (120-mile) canal, which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and provides the shortest sea link between Asia and Europe.

The grounding of the Ever Given meant other ships had to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope on the southern tip of Africa, can take two weeks longer.