Teesside entrepreneurs pushed to breaking point as stock stranded following Ever Given ship delay

Two Teesside entrepreneurs say their business is being pushed to breaking point because a shortage of HGV drivers has left £400,000 worth of stock stranded in the port at Felixstowe.

This follows as their stock had been stuck for months on the Ever Given ship - which became notorious earlier this year after it blocked the Suez Canel in Egpyt for nearly a week.

  • Jack Griffiths, Co-founder of Snuggie:

The ship may have docked in the UK but because of a shortage of HGV drivers, the stock won't get to Teesside until mid-September.

The Road Haulage Association says there's a serious national shortage of lorry drivers which means it's becoming a struggle to get goods out around the country. 

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Earlier this year, the Ever Given ship was heading for Rotterdam when it ploughed into the sandy bank of a single-lane stretch of the Suez canal on March 23.

The Ever Given’s bow was touching the canal’s eastern wall, while its stern looked lodged against its western wall.

The blockage caused a pileup of at least 100 vessels seeking to transit between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, according to shipbrokers and mapping data compiled by Bloomberg.

It was stuck for nearly a week causing one of the biggest traffic jams in shipping history.

A digger being used to free the Ever Given from the Suez Canal Credit: Suez Canal Authority/PA

Hundreds of ships were delayed as they waited for the canal to be unblocked and some vessels were forced to take the much longer route around the southern tip of Africa.

The ship, which carries cargo between Asia and Europe, was held for more than three months amid a financial dispute over compensation.

After an agreement was met between the ship's Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd, and canal authorities it was freed to continue its voyage in July.

It unloaded cargo in Rotterdam before heading toward Felixstowe, where it had been unloaded.