Suez Canal blockage to have insignificant impact on Mombasa port

"The blockade should be able to affect cargo from Europe and the Americas that are normally transshipped from the Gulf ports", Mr Salim said on Wednesday. He also averred that the incident damaged the reputation of Egypt.

However, since the Ever Given got stuck on the vial waterway, it has brough global trade to a near standstill and other countries have come forward with suggestions for alternative routes.

The ship, which was stuck at the Egypt coast for nearly a week, was straightened and sailed to the Great Bitter Lake for inspection, said Evergreen Marine Corp., a Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the ship.

Hundreds of ships were caught in a bottleneck on the Suez Canal after a Panamanian vessel, the Ever Given, ran aground on Tuesday last week.

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The Ever Given's stranding across a southern section of the canal forced a halt to all traffic, leading to a build-up of 422 ships at either end of the canal and along its course. The Japanese owner of the ship, Shoei Kisen, undertook the task of refloating the vessel, while the process was closely overseen by the office of the Egyptian president.

A cargo ship sails through the town of Ismailia, Egypt, Tuesday, March 30, 2021 as traffic resumed through the Suez canal after it was blocked by a massive ship that had been stuck sideways for almost a week. The Suez Canal was no longer blocked as the massive ship was pulled to a location outside the way for further inspection, according to Boskalis Westminster, the origin company of the Dutch salvage firm utilized to extract the ship. Suez Canal links the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, which is one of the world's busiest trade routes.

Of the 1,11,372 tonnes of oil products that sailed from the south to the north of the canal, 17% were from India, the third-highest among exporting countries in the northbound direction. However, the re-routing ships around the Cape of Good Hope added at least two more weeks to the voyage and more than 800 tonnes of fuel consumption for Suezmax tankers.

"In 40 years now, not a single case of dispute has happened between SCA and Evergreen", he said in an interview. "We all respect all the rules of the SCA", he said.