The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) of Egypt will ask for more than 1 billion dollars in compensation for the losses caused by the blockade of the container ship ‘EverGiven’, which was stranded and preventing navigation on the waterway for almost a week.
The president of the SCA, Osama Rabie, has indicated to a local television channel that the compensation for the damages will amount to this amount, on which he added that “this is the right and we will not abandon it,” reports ‘Daily News Egypt’.
Rabie has specified that the request for this compensation is not only due to the economic losses due to the suspension of navigation for six days, but also includes the expenses caused by the rescue process, such as the use of tugboats or physical damage.
Egyptian authorities have already started investigations into the causes of the freighter’s grounding in the Suez Canal, which blocked one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes until last Monday, when circulation was resumed.
The vessel, one of the largest container shipping vessels, ran aground on March 23 in the Suez Canal, causing an unprecedented traffic jam, which has led to the diversion of more than 200 vessels and the paralysis of goods worth 9,500 million euros a day.
The ship, 400 meters long and 59 meters wide, was finally released on Monday thanks to the work of the tugs and has no damage. About 12 percent of the volume of world trade passes through the canal.