Suez Canal to demand more than $ 1 billion in compensation for losses due to ‘Ever Given’ blockade

The Egyptian Suez Canal Authority (SCA) will seek more than $ 1 billion in compensation for losses caused by the blockade of the container ship “ Ever Given ”, stranded and preventing navigation on the waterway for nearly of a week.

SCA chairman Osama Rabie told a local TV station that compensation for damages would be that amount, to which he added that “it is the right and we will not give it up. “, informs’Daily News Egypt ”.

Rabie clarified that The claim for this compensation does not only concern the economic losses due to the suspension of navigation for six days, but also includes the costs incurred by the rescue process, such as the use of tugs or physical damage.

Egyptian authorities have already opened investigations into the causes of the cargo ship’s grounding in the Suez Canal, which blocked one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes until last Monday, when traffic resumed. .

The ship, one of the world’s largest container ships, ran aground on March 23 in the Suez Canal, causing unprecedented traffic jams, which resulted in the hijacking of more than 200 ships and the paralysis of goods from a worth 9,500 million euros per day.

The ship, 400 meters long and 59 meters wide, was finally freed on Monday thanks to the work of the tugs and suffered no damage. About 12 percent of world trade volume passes through the canal.

Convoys of ships that usually travel in both directions of the Suez Canal resumed activity on Tuesday, after the seaway was finally unlocked Monday afternoon when the container ship “Ever Given” was refloated, which had been blocked since March 23, which created a huge congestion.

The company Gulf Agency Company (GAC), which has a coordination office in Suez, reported on Tuesday that a A convoy of 22 ships entered the canal from the Red Sea, heading north, at 06:30 local time (04:30 GMT), while another of 14 ships started their voyage from the Mediterranean to the south at 07:00 (05:00 GMT).

At the same time, 37 boats of those who were stopped at the intermediate point of the canal, in the Grand Lac, have already left the artificial passage of water, and six others have not yet done so.

The Grand Lac is where ships coming from both directions can maneuver and wait, as the southern section of the Suez Canal has only one lane, while the north was widened in 2015 and has two canals. parallels.

GAC explained that the convoys are organized by the Suez Canal Authority without pre-established schedules, as usual, and “They run back and forth without interruption until the traffic jam clears”.

(With information from Europa Press)

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