At approximately 0740 local time on March 23, 2021, the container ship Ever Given — 400 meters long, 199,000 deadweight tons, one of the largest vessels ever built — wedged itself diagonally across the Suez Canal during a sandstorm. For the next six days, no commercial traffic could pass in either direction. By the morning of March 29, when tugs and dredgers refloated her on the rising tide, more than 400 ships had backed up at both ends of the canal.

Lloyd's List, the maritime industry's daily of record, estimated the value of trade held up at roughly $9.6 billion per day. Approximately 12% of world trade by value normally moves through Suez.

None of it moved for nearly a week. The price of one specific contract — six-month-forward dated freight on the Asia-Europe container route — moved several hundred dollars per TEU before the ship was free, and the secondary effects on European retailer inventory cycles were still being unwound months later.