The move was made in response to the Suez Canal blockage as The Ever Given, a huge container ship, carrying 18,300 containers had been wedged in the Suez Canal since last Tuesday.

Vietnamese exporters are facing with heavy difficulties of container shortages, soaring shipping costs due to the COVID-19, and the Suez Canal blockage.  

The ministry alerted Vietnamese exporters to raise their adaptability capability to market fluctuations, diversify export markets, and prepare backup plans to minimize negative losses.

Last year, Viet Nam earned US$ 43.7 billion from exporting goods to the Europe and imported US$ 18.5 billion of goods.

In the first two months of 2021, the Southeast Asian country’s exports to and imports from the Europe reached US$ 7.5 billion and US$ 3.1 billion, or up 18% and 12%, respectively.

So far, commodity exchanges between Viet Nam and the Europe are chiefly shipped by sea via Suez Canal while a small amount of cargo transported by air and rail, thus the blockage will pose heavy impact on trade activities between the two sides.

The ship is operated by Taiwanese transport company Evergreen Marine and is one of the world's largest container vessels.

It became stranded on Tuesday, after running aground and becoming lodged sideways across the waterway. At first a gust of wind was thought to be to blame.

Over the weekend, 14 tugboats pulled and pushed the Ever Given at high tide to try to dislodge it and were able to move the ship "30 degrees from left and right".

​Then on Monday, after several reports that the ship had been partially refloated, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) issued a statement saying that the Ever Given had been "successfully refloated".

The SCA said it would resume manoeuvres later on Monday high tide, "allowing for the full restoration of the vessel's direction so it is positioned in the middle of the navigable waterway"./.