CAIRO (AP), The Suez Canal Authority announced Sunday that it had reached an agreement with the owners and operators of a hulking cargo ship that blocked the critical waterway for almost a week earlier in the year.The details of the settlement agreement with Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. (the Japanese owner of Ever Given), were not disclosed by the authority. The agreement will be signed at a ceremony in Ismailia's Suez Canal city.It also stated that the vessel would be released Wednesday.Lt. General Osama Rabie of Egypt's Suez Canal Authority said that last month they had reached an agreement on a amount for compensation. He said that the amount would not be public because they had signed a confidentiality agreement prior to the signing of their final contract.After a huge salvage effort by a flotilla tugboats, the vessel was rescued six days later from the single-lane canal stretch.The Panama-flagged, Japanese owned vessel that transports cargo between Asia and Europe was released. Authorities have ordered it to remain in a holding bay mid-canal while the sides negotiate a settlement.The dispute was over the amount of compensation the Suez Canal Authority claimed for the salvage of vessel.This money would pay for the rescue operation, the costs of stalled traffic and lost transit fees during the week that the Ever Given blocked off the canal.Initially, the Suez Canal Authority demanded $916 Million in compensation. Later, it was reduced to $550,000,000.Both sides have been blaming each other for the vessel grounding. Bad weather, poor canal decisions, human and technical errors all were possible causes.Global shipping was disrupted by the six-day blockage. While hundreds of ships waited for the canal's unblocking, some ships had to travel the longer route around Africa's southern tip. This required additional fuel and other costs.
