Ship that blocked Suez to go free in deal

ISMAILIA, Egypt－The owners and insurers of the Ever Given container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March said on Sunday a formal settlement had been agreed in a compensation dispute.

The Suez Canal Authority has held the giant ship and its crew in a lake between two stretches of the waterway since it was dislodged on March 29, amid a dispute over a demand for compensation by the SCA. The authority said the vessel would be allowed to sail on Wednesday.

The Japanese-owned Ever Given had become stuck in high winds and remained wedged across the canal for six days, disrupting global trade.

"Preparations for the release of the vessel will be made and an event marking the agreement will be held at the Authority's headquarters in Ismailia in due course," said Faz Peermohamed of Stann Marine, which represents owner Shoei Kisen and its insurers, in a statement.

The SCA said the settlement contract would be signed on Wednesday at a ceremony, and that participants would be able to watch the ship leave.

Stann Marine gave no details of the settlement.

Osama Rabie, chairman of the SCA, said the canal will receive a tug boat with a pulling capacity of about 75 metric tons as part of a settlement, without mentioning any other details.

"We preserved the rights of the authority in full, preserved our relationship with the company and also political relations with Japan," he told a private television channel on Sunday evening.

The canal earned revenue of $3 billion in the first six months of this year, up 8.8 percent compared with the same period last year, despite the Ever Given accident.

Blame game

Shoei Kisen and its insurers said they had reached an agreement in principle with the SCA last month. The SCA had demanded $916 million in compensation to cover salvage efforts, reputational damage and lost revenue before publicly lowering the request to $550 million.

The two sides have traded blame for the vessel's grounding, with bad weather, poor decisions on part of the canal authorities, and human and technical errors all being thrown out as possible factors.

Earlier on Sunday, an Egyptian court adjourned hearings of the compensation dispute to Sunday to allow the canal and the ship's owner to finalize the settlement, according to court sources and a lawyer.

The six-day blockage disrupted global shipping. Hundreds of ships waited in place for the canal to be unblocked, while some ships were forced to take the much longer route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa's southern tip, requiring additional fuel and other costs.

Agencies Via Xinhua