April 6th, the Egyptian pyramid online website reported that Osama Rabiye, chairman of the Egyptian Suez Canal Authority, told the media on the same day that Egypt would seek to solve the claim for cargo ship stranding through negotiations.
Rabiye told the media that Egypt is negotiating with the owner of the cargo ship involved to try to solve the accident claim through “peaceful means”; if the claim is resolved through litigation, the shipowner’s loss will be greater.
Rabiya said on the 1st of this month that the Suez Canal Authority’s one-time claim for the stranding of the cargo ship Changci will exceed $1 billion to compensate for the losses and related rescue costs caused by the six-day suspension of the canal.
Rabiye said on the same day that investigators had analyzed the data of the cargo ship’s navigation data recorder, but has not yet reached a conclusion on the cause of the accident.
He has previously said that windy and dusty weather is not the main reason for the cargo ship to strand, and the possibility of human operation errors cannot be ruled out.
The Panamanian-flagged heavy cargo ship “Changci” ran aground on the new waterway of the Suez Canal on March 23, causing the waterway to be blocked.
After several consecutive days of rescue, the stranded cargo ship successfully took off and a shallow on March 29 and is still staying in the berth of the Suez Canal. Egypt and the cargo ship management investigated the cause of the accident.
The Suez Canal is located at the junction of Europe, Asia and Africa, connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
The canal revenue is one of the main sources of Egyptian national fiscal revenue and foreign exchange reserves.
