The Japanese owner of the giant cargo ship that has been blocking Egypt's Suez Canal since Tuesday has apologized for the disruption to global trade, as the blockage reportedly is holding up $9.6 billion of goods a day.

"In cooperation with local authorities and Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, a vessel management company, we are trying to refloat [the Ever Given], but we are facing extreme difficulty," the owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, said in a statement on Thursday.

"We sincerely apologize for causing a great deal of worry to ships in the Suez Canal and those planning to go through the canal," it added.

Shipping expert Lloyd's List valued the canal's westbound traffic at roughly $5.1 billion a day and eastbound daily traffic at around $4.5 billion.

Marine and salvage engineers failed in their latest attempt on Thursday.

The 400-meter-long, 200,000-tonne vessel is almost the same size as Empire Building, is now blocking transit in both directions through one of the world's busiest shipping channels linking Asia and Europe, which accounts for about 12 percent of global trade.

A total of 206 large container ships, tankers carrying oil and gas, and bulk vessels hauling grain have backed up at either end of the canal, according to tracking data, creating one of the worst shipping jams seen for years.

The blockage comes on top of the disruption to world trade already caused in the past year by COVID-19, with trade volumes hit by high rates of ship cancellations, shortages of containers and slower handling speeds at ports.

The world's number one line A.P. Moller Maersk said it was considering diverting vessels around Africa's Cape of Good Hope, adding five to six days to the journey between Asia and Europe. It said time-sensitive cargo could be sent on trains and airplanes, although no decisions had yet been made.

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'Enormous beached whale'

Shoei Kisen Kaisha said it was trying to resolve the situation as soon as possible, but the salvage company said that it may take weeks to free the huge container ship blocking the canal.

"It is like an enormous beached whale. It's an enormous weight on the sand. We might have to work with a combination of reducing the weight by removing containers, oil and water from the ship, tug boats and dredging of sand." Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch company Boskalis, one of two rescue teams trying to free the ship, told the Dutch television program "Nieuwsuur."

The Suez Canal Authority said that the dredging work to remove 15,000-20,000 cubic meters of sand surrounding the bow continued after dark on Thursday, with the aim of returning the ship to a draft of 12-16 meters at which it could be refloated.

A higher tide due on Sunday may help the rescue efforts.

(With input from agencies)