Egypt's president orders preparations be made to unload Ever Given's cargo if refloating fails, a high risk strategy adding days of delay

• Egypt's President has ordered preparations be made to unload the cargo of the Ever Given ship.
• He outlined the plans to the Suez Canal Authority on Sunday morning, local media reported.
• Unloading the cargo risks unbalancing and damaging the ship, an expert warned.

Egypt's president has ordered preparations be made to unload the cargo of the Ever Given ship if refloating fails, according to local media reports.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi outlined the plan to the Suez Canal Authority on Sunday morning, Daily News Egypt reported.

Efforts are currently underway to refloat the ship. The floatation efforts included towing and pushing the grounding vessel using 8 large tugboats, the Suez Canal Authority said.

Authorities are also working to dig the Ever Given out of the sand, The Wall Street Journal reported. Dredgers have shifted 27,000 cubic meters of sand to a depth of 18 meters, Arab News said.

But plans are in place to unload the cargo of the massive ship if these efforts fail, CGTN Africa reported.

Helicopters would most likely need to be used to lighten the Ever Given's load, The Wall Street Journal reported. This is because there are no cranes in the vicinity that are tall enough to reach the top of the stacked containers, the paper said.

The process could unbalance and damage the ship, BBC News reported. "Worst case scenario is that she breaks in half because of [uneven] weight distributions," Sal Mercogliano, an expert in maritime history, told the BBC.

It is likely that an effort to remove cargo boxes from the ship would take several days, Bloomberg reported. The Ever Given carries a load of 20,000 containers.

The Ever Given ship has caused a blockage in the Suez Canal since Tuesday morning.

The incident is costing the global economy billions and has caused hundreds of vessels to become stranded.