From the first images that went viral, it looked as if the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) had deployed a toy-sized excavator to refloat the behemoth container carrier. The comical propaganda news released infrequently did not help assuage logisticians' fears too in recent days.

What is going on?

Right now, all liner companies are scrambling for extra loaders in the charter market. It has been like that for a while, but the Suez incident is making the need even more acute. All sizes of contain...