Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) Admiral Osama Rabie revealed Saturday that a total of 321 different vessels are now waiting in the lakes of the canal until the ongoing blockages comes to an end.
He said it is still premature to talk about fines to be imposed on the company owning the Ever Given container vessel that ran aground and became wedged across the Suez Canal, creating an unprecedented gridlock that continues until this hour.
This issue, he added at a press conference, will be looked into after the end of investigations, which would show why the vessel stuck in the canal, Admiral Rabie said.
He ruled out the possibility that the Suez Canal would lose its importance as the shortest link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean because of the ongoing crisis.
“No ships stranded in the Suez Canal have changed their courses to other routes,” Rabie said, adding that he rules out any ships would change their courses in the future, explaining that the Suez Canal “is the shortest passage for the maritime navigational traffic in the world.”
These accidents, Admiral Rabie said, happen everywhere in the world, adding that alternative routes to the canal are not easy to use.
The Suez Canal has not caused the current crisis, the chairman of the authority said. It has no influence on it.
He said the canal would not lose its clients, but would consider the possibility of offering incentives to these clients, noting that the authority is now in talks with agents to see what they can do to the canal’s clients.
“We will help our clients and will not let them down,” Admiral Rabie said.
He added that the canal brought in revenues amounting to $5.6 billion last year which means that the canal and Egypt would be negatively influenced by the blockage.
“We cannot say that we have not been affected when it comes to the revenues because the other vessels already awaiting in the canal,” Rabie said, adding that offloading the containers is the third scenario that could be conducted to refloat the ship.
He noted the use of dredgers in ongoing attempts to free Ever Given was praised by maritime experts.
“On Friday, there was an indication of success to refloat the ship, but we cannot guarantee when exactly the refloating process complete,” Rabie said.
The SCA chairman expressed hopes that the authority would not resort to removing some of the containers aboard Ever Given to make the ship lose weight as part of attempts to put it to sea.
He referred to several scenarios for refloating the ship if ongoing efforts come short of doing this.
Admiral Rabie said Ever Given was not the largest container vessel to cross the Suez Canal to date. A ship carrying 240,000 tonnes passed through the canal before, he said.
He said dredging around the stuck ship had already come to an end.
About 14 tugboats are now trying to refloat the ship, the chairman said.
He noted that the SCA is now considering offers for help from the United States, China, Greece and the United Arab Emirates.
We will use the best of these offers on the road to ending the crisis and bringing the canal back to normal activity, Admiral Rabie said.
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