Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority Osama Rabie also mentioned that negotiations for compensation for losses incurred from the blockage with the ship’s company are underway
By: Business Today Egypt
Thu, Apr. 8, 2021
The Suez Canal gained $2 billion in revenues for Q1 2021, despite a 6-day blockage that saw international container ship Ever Given blocking around 10 percent of global trade when it got stuck in one of the canal’s entries.
Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority Osama Rabie also mentioned that negotiations for compensation for losses incurred from the blockage with the ship’s company are underway.
The compensation must make up for the lost revenues during the stranding hours and the cost of equipment used to refloat the ship over six days from March 23 to March 29, the Suez Canal chairman explained.
The chairman previously noted that Egypt will be requesting a compensation of $1 billion from the ship and its company Evergreen Marine, and highlighted that the cargo on Ever Given was estimated to be around $3.5 billion.
Earlier this week, an oil tanker briefly halted the Suez Canal but, Rabie clarified that it was fixed in a few minutes negating that the incident crippled navigation in the international waterway.
Rabie explained that if one or two ships break per annum while crossing the canal, that will be zero percent compared to the number of vessels that navigate the international waterway yearly. He highlighted that 18,845 ships passed through the canal in 2020.
The length of MV EVER GIVEN is 40 meters, its width is 59 meters, and its cargo capacity is 224,000 tons. The cargo ship is operated by the Taiwanese company "Evergreen Marine Corp," and owned by the Japanese company Shoei Kisen Kaisha. It was heading from China to the Netherlands.