106 Days After Sinking In The Suez Canal, The Giant Container Ship Ever Given Arrives In The Port Of Rotterdam

The giant container ship MV Ever Given (Wikimedia Commons/kees torn)

JAKARTA - The giant container ship MV Ever Given, which had run aground for a week in the Suez Canal, was then 'detained' by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) over a compensation dispute, finally arrived at the ECT Delta Rotterdam port which was its destination, Thursday 29 July.

Reporting Daily Sabah from AFP, the ship, which is almost the same size as the Empire State Building, New York, docked at a port in Europe on Thursday at 3 a.m. Dutch time, an AFP reporter said.

"It's a relief to see it and a special moment," said Hans Nagtegaal, container director for the Port of Rotterdam.

"Finally, we can finish the loading and unloading work and hopefully he will return to his normal sailing routine."

Nagtegaal said Ever Given would remain in Rotterdam until Monday, where he was expected to sail to Felixstowe in England, before going to dry dock at Dunkirk in France for further checks.

The MV Ever Given, which ran aground on the Suez Canal for six days at the end of March, disrupted ship traffic on the busy canal, finally leaving the waterway three weeks ago after Egypt and Japanese shipowners signed a compensation agreement.

The nearly 200,000-ton container ship ran aground in the canal during a sandstorm on March 23, blocking a vital canal from Asia to Europe that carries 10 percent of global maritime trade and provides Egypt with vital revenue.

After days of salvage operations to get it out, Egypt confiscated the vessel and demanded compensation from the owner of the Shoei Kisen Kaisha for lost canal revenues, salvage costs, and canal damage.

Last month, the Suez Canal Authority announced it had signed a nondisclosure agreement with the Japanese company before reaching a final agreement.

To note, SCA filed a claim of 916 million US dollars as compensation to cover rescue efforts, reputational damage, and loss of income, before publicly lowering the request to 550 million US dollars through tough bargaining.

Compensation proposed by Egypt can not be separated from calculations, the canal generates more than 5 billion US dollars per year. Egypt must lose between 12 million US dollars and 15 million US dollars in revenue each day while the canal is closed, the SCA said.

The giant container ship MV Ever Given, carrying about 18,300 containers, set sail from Egypt on July 7, or about 106 days after it ran aground in the Suez Canal on March 23, citing Reuters.