The tanker retained by Egypt since it blocked the Suez Canal in March is to be released tomorrow, after the authority that manages the vital waterway said a deal had been reached with its Japanese owner.
The MV Ever Given got stuck diagonally across the canal during a sandstorm on March 23, blocking the trade artery for six days before salvage teams could dislodge it.
Egypt retained the vessel, seeking compensation from Japanese firm Shoei Kisen Kaisha for lost canal revenue and the cost of salvaging it, and for damage to the shipping lane that links Asia and Europe.
Photo: AFP
The Suez Canal Authority said in a statement that a ceremony would be held tomorrow to mark the signing of an agreement with the owner and “the departure of the ship.”
The statement that was issued on Sunday did not disclose the amount of compensation.
Egypt lost between US$12 million and US$15 million in revenue for each day the waterway was closed, according to the authority.
The grounding of the ship and the intensive salvage efforts needed to refloat it also resulted in significant damage to the canal.
A member of London-based law firm Stann Marine, which represents the owners and insurers of the Ever Given, confirmed in a statement that preparations were underway for its release.
“We are pleased to announce that ... good progress has been made and a formal solution agreed” between the two sides, Faz Peermohamed said in the statement.
Suez Canal Authority chairman Osama Rabie last week said that Egypt had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the owners of the Ever Given as it finalized the compensation agreement.
Initially, Egypt had sought hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation, but it later slashed its initial claim of US$900 million to US$550 million.
The Taiwanese-operated and Panama-flagged ship was moved to unobstructive anchorage in the Suez Canal after it was freed on March 29, and tailbacks totaling 420 vessels at the northern and southern entrances to the canal were cleared in early April.
Maritime data company Lloyd’s List in April said that the blockage by the vessel, longer than four soccer pitches, held up an estimated US$9.6 billion of cargo between Asia and Europe each day.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ruled out any widening of the southern stretch of the canal where the tanker became diagonally stuck.
Sisi oversaw an expansion of a northern section, which included widening an existing stretch and introducing a 35km parallel waterway, to much fanfare in 2014 to 2015, but that was achieved at a cost of more than US$8 billion, without significantly increasing revenue from the canal.
The Suez Canal earned Egypt more than US$5.7 billion in the 2019-2020 fiscal year, according to official data — little changed from the US$5.3 billion earned in 2014.
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