The Ever Given, the ship that was trapped in the Suez Canal for six days in March disrupting global trade, is to be released following a settlement.
The insurers of the vessel announced that a settlement has been made between them and the Suez Canal Authority (SCA).
This means that millions of dollars worth of retail goods will now be released, however experts are unsure as to when the goods will hit the shelves.
Retailers such as Ikea and Lenovo amongst others still have stock on the vessel three months after it was freed from the canal and confined to the Suez Canal’s Great Bitter Lake by local authorities.
Goods ranging from barbecues, sun loungers, swimwear, lawnmowers to camping equipment will now arrive at their destinations out of season.
READ MORE: Ikea and Lenovo among dozens of retailers with cargo still stuck on Ever Given 2 months later
Among the 18,300 cargo containers that were stuck in Limbo were $550,000 worth of Snuggy’s best selling blankets and around $100,000 worth of bicycle products which Pearson 1860’s chief executive Will Pearson said he has “little chance of seeing” for months if not years.
“Preparations for the release of the vessel will be made and an event marking the agreement will be held at the Authority’s headquarters in Ismailia in due course,” Stann Marine, the company which represents the boat’s owner and insurers, spokesperson Faz Peermohamed said.
“We preserved the rights of the authority in full, preserved our relationship with the company and also political relations with Japan,” he said.
Despite the Ever Given being wedged in the canal for nearly a week, the trade route earned $3 billion in the first six months of this year, up 8.8 per cent from the same period last year.
Egyptian authorities impounded the boat while it filed for a $916 million compensation claim against the vessel’s Japanese owners Shoei Kisen Kaisha, before publicly lowering the amount to $550 million.
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