<p>The traffic congestion caused by a cargo ship that blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week continued to ease on Friday, with the number of ships waiting to transit falling to 206, canal services firm Leth Agencies said, from over 300 three days ago.</p>.<p>On Monday, salvage teams freed the skyscraper-sized container ship, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world's most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce.</p>.<p><strong>Read | Investigation begins into how ship got stuck on Suez Canal</strong></p>.<p>At the time, Canal officials said that more than 420 ships had been waiting for the Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship Ever Given to be freed so they could make the crossing.</p>.<p>Leth Agencies said that a total of 357 vessels have crossed the Canal since the ship was re-floated by a flotilla of tugboats, helped by the tides.</p>.<p>The Ever Given had crashed into a bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.</p>.<p>That forced some ships to take the long, alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip — a 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) detour that costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs. Others waited in place for the blockage to be over.</p>.<p>The unprecedented shutdown, which raised fears of extended delays, goods shortages and rising costs for consumers, added to strain on the shipping industry, already under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.</p>
<p>The traffic congestion caused by a cargo ship that blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week continued to ease on Friday, with the number of ships waiting to transit falling to 206, canal services firm Leth Agencies said, from over 300 three days ago.</p>.<p>On Monday, salvage teams freed the skyscraper-sized container ship, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world's most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce.</p>.<p><strong>Read | Investigation begins into how ship got stuck on Suez Canal</strong></p>.<p>At the time, Canal officials said that more than 420 ships had been waiting for the Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship Ever Given to be freed so they could make the crossing.</p>.<p>Leth Agencies said that a total of 357 vessels have crossed the Canal since the ship was re-floated by a flotilla of tugboats, helped by the tides.</p>.<p>The Ever Given had crashed into a bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.</p>.<p>That forced some ships to take the long, alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip — a 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) detour that costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs. Others waited in place for the blockage to be over.</p>.<p>The unprecedented shutdown, which raised fears of extended delays, goods shortages and rising costs for consumers, added to strain on the shipping industry, already under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic.</p>