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.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats