Ever Given container ship finally leaves Egyptian waters 112 days after blocking Suez Canal

Jul 13, 2021

The Ever Given container ship that had blocked the Suez Canal in March has finally left Egyptian waters following inspections at Port Said.

Ship tracker MarineTraffic showed the vessel to now be in the Mediterranean Sea north of the Egyptian coast.

The container ship, one of the world’s largest, resumes its voyage to Dutch port Rotterdam 112 days after becoming wedged across a southern section of the Egyptian waterway for nearly a week and disrupting global trade.

The ship was released on 7 July after protracted negotiations and an undisclosed settlement was reached between the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) and the Ever Given’s owners and insurers.

A settlement deal was signed in a ceremony in the city of Ismalia.

The sum reached in the agreement, according to canal authorities, would cover the salvage operation, costs of stalled canal traffic and lost transit fees for the week the ship blocked the waterway.

The Suez Canal Authority did not reveal details of the settlement terms but it had previously demanded $916m (£666m) in compensation, later lowering its asking amount to $550m (around £397.7m).

In addition to the money, local reports said the canal would receive a tugboat.

The Ever Given was on its way to Rotterdam on 23 March when it hit the bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 3.7 miles north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.

A huge salvage effort by tugboats and a specialist rescue team, helped by the tides, freed the skyscraper-sized ship six days later, ending the crisis, and allowing about 400 backed-up vessels to pass through.

Since then, it has been held in the canal’s Great Bitter Lake while a deal was negotiated.

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