DUBAI: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi pledged to invest in the equipment needed to avoid a repeat of the closure of the Suez Canal over the past week.
He made the remarks as he visited Ismailia, en route to the vital trade artery — a day after the refloating of the giant MV Ever Given container ship.
“It is extremely important to provide any equipment and supplies that are continuously in place to contribute to the authority’s ability and meet its demands in light of the movement of ships development,” he said, Al Arabiya reported.
The Suez Canal expects 140 ships to pass on Tuesday after congestion around the key waterway started to ease gradually. However the disruption to global shipping could take months to resolve, experts have warned.
Suez Canal Authority chairman Osama Rabie said 95 ships would pass by 1900 local time (1700 GMT) on Tuesday and a further 45 by midnight, Reuters reported.
Maersk, the international shipping group has said the knock-on disruptions could take weeks or months to unravel.
The SCA will consider giving discounts to shippers affected by the stoppage, said Rabie.
“We need to study it in the right way because the number of ships is large, including ships that waited for one day, ships that waited for two days, and ships that waited for three days or four days — not all of them will take the same percentages,” he told reporters on Monday.
Suez blockage could ‘take weeks’ to clear