Cairo:
The megatanker Ever Given that Egypt has retained because it blocked the Suez Canal in March is to be released on Wednesday, the canal authority stated.
The Suez Canal Authority stated on Sunday that a ceremony would be held on July 7 to mark the signing of an agreement with the vessel’s owners and “the departure of the ship”.
Egypt retained the ship searching for compensation from Japanese firm Shoei Kisen Kaisha for lost canal revenues and the expense of salvaging it and for harm to the waterway linking Asia to Europe.
The 200,000-tonne MV Ever Given got stuck diagonally across the canal in the course of a sandstorm on March 23, blocking the crucial trade artery for six days prior to salvage teams could dislodge it.
Egypt lost in between $12 million and $15 million in revenues for every day the waterway was closed, according to the canal authority.
The grounding of the ship and the intensive salvage efforts required to refloat it also resulted in considerable harm to the canal.
Last week, Suez Canal Authority chief Osama Rabie stated Egypt had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the owners of the Ever Given as it finalised a compensation agreement.
Initially, Egypt had sought hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation but it later slashed its initial claim of $900 million to $550 million.
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