Ever Given ship impounded after Suez Canal blockage, released by Egyptian court

dpa

Cairo — An Egyptian court has issued an order allowing the massive Ever Given container ship to be released, after the freighter was impounded for months for blocking the Suez Canal and disrupting global trade earlier this year.

The head of the Ismailia Economic Court approved a request submitted by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) to lift a detention order on the Panama-flagged freighter, the state-run al-Ahram newspaper reported.

Both the SCA and the Japanese ship owner said this week a deal has been reached in the dispute over compensation requested by the canal authorities and that the ship will be allowed to leave on Wednesday.

The 400-metre-long Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, ran aground in the Suez Canal in March and blocked the important waterway between Asia and Europe for six days.

It sails under the flag of Panama and was chartered by a Taiwan-based company before the accident.

After it was refloated, the ship had been prevented from leaving the Great Bitter Lake that separates the northern and southern parts of the canal.

The Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, provides one of Egypt’s main sources of income, alongside tourism and remittances from expatriates.

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