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ISMAILIA, Egypt — The megaship MV Ever Given which blocked the Suez Canal for six days in March headed out of the waterway on Wednesday as Egypt and the vessel's Japanese owners signed a final compensation deal.

The ship weighed anchor and began sailing north from near the central canal city of Ismailia towards the Mediterranean Sea, shortly after 11:30am local time (09:30 GMT). 

The nearly 200,000 tonne container vessel became wedged across the canal during a sandstorm on March 23, blocking a vital artery from Asia to Europe that carries 10 per cent of global maritime trade and provides Egypt with vital revenues.

After a round-the-clock salvage operation to dislodge it, Egypt seized the ship and demanded compensation from owners Shoei Kisen Kaisha for lost canal revenues, salvage costs and damage to the canal.

In a ceremony attended by ambassadors and international media, Suez Canal Authority chief (SCA) Osama Rabie inked a final deal with representatives of the owners.

"I announce to the world that we have reached a deal," Rabie said at the ceremony carried live on Egypt's state television.

He called March's salvage operation a "race against time" to restore global shipping flows.

"We were facing a tough test with the world watching," he added.

The SCA announced last month it had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the Japanese firm ahead of reaching a final deal.

Khaled Abou Bakr, a prominent lawyer who headed the SCA negotiating team, reiterated on Wednesday the "secrecy" of the final compensation package.

"I can unequivocally state that we preserved the full rights of the Authority," he said.

Cairo initially demanded $916 million in compensation before slashing that to around $550 million, but the final figure has been the subject of tough negotiations. 

Millions in revenues 

Egypt, which earns more than $5 billion a year from the canal, lost between $12 million and $15 million in revenues each day it was closed, the SCA said.

The ship's grounding and the intensive efforts to refloat it also resulted in significant damage to the canal.

In April, maritime data company Lloyd's List said the blockage by the vessel, which is longer than four football fields, held up some $9.6 billion worth of cargo each day it was stuck.

The Taiwanese-operated and Panama-flagged vessel was refloated on March 29, and tailbacks of 420 vessels at the canal's northern and southern entrances were cleared in early April.

On Tuesday, the Ismailia Economic Court ruled that the seized ship and its crew was being released following a request from the SCA.

It resumed its journey on Wednesday with its cargo of 18,300 containers intact, according to SCA sources. 

In a Sunday television interview, Rabie said the Ever Given had suffered "no leakage".

He said also Egypt would receive a 75 tonne tugboat from Shoei Kisen Kaisha as part of the compensation package, and noted that the family of a rescue worker who died during the salvage operation would be compensated.

"The Suez canal has always been a site of sacrifices since it was built," he said.

Canal expansion 

Rabie waved off the megaship as it headed for the Mediterranean surrounded by white-clad captains waving Egyptian flags. SCA boats honked loudly to celebrate its departure.

In a show of appreciation, the SCA also presented a silver plaque to the Ever Given's captain and crew, who had been stranded for months.

At a press conference after the signing, Rabie noted "the difficulty in the negotiations was to bring the varying viewpoints closer because each side was sticking to its position".

Even with the ship's grounding, Rabie said on Sunday that canal revenues in the first half of the year had topped $3 billion.

Officials have been keen to avoid reputational damage from the incident, trumpeting Egyptian efforts in the salvage operation. 

President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi swiftly pledged investment to avoid any repetition of the crisis, and in May approved a two-year project to widen and deepen the southern part of the waterway where the ship ran aground.

Sisi had overseen the $8 billion expansion of a northern section of the canal to much fanfare in 2014-15.

LONDON — European carmaker Stellantis on Tuesday said it was keeping its Vauxhall plant in northern England, which will become the group's first factory to produce a solely battery-electric vehicle.

It is pumping £100 million ($138 million, 117 million euros) into the facility, with help from the UK government, to produce electric light commercial vehicles and passenger vans, Stellantis said in a statement.

Stellantis, which was created in January via the merger of French giant PSA and Italian carmaker Fiat, has been mulling the future of Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant on the northwest English coast, which employs more than 1,000 staff.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson described the news as "a huge vote of confidence" in Britain's post-Brexit economy.

UK Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng added that the development "will secure thousands of jobs across the region in the supply chain". 

Stellantis became the world's fourth biggest carmaker by volume after marrying PSA brands Peugeot and Citroen with Fiat, Chrysler, Jeep, Maserati and others.

Vauxhall, along with Opel, became part of PSA in 2017 after it purchased General Motors' European subsidiary.

From next year, the Ellesmere Port plant will produce an electric light commercial vehicle and passenger car variant for each of the Citroen, Opel, Peugeot and Vauxhall brands for sale in the UK and abroad.

The passenger car versions will have up to seven seats.

A separate Vauxhall factory in Luton, near London, is reportedly operating at full capacity to produce vans.

"Producing battery electric vehicles... [at Ellesmere] will support clean, safe and affordable mobility," said Stellantis chief executive Carlos Tavares. 

The company added that its "dedication to battery electric vehicles will go towards achieving the UK government's decision to stop sales of pure petrol and diesel engined vehicles from 2030".

'Global race' 

Car manufacturers are rapidly shifting away from vehicles that run on fossil fuels, as governments ramp up efforts to meet net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

"In this global race to secure electric vehicle production, we are proud to support Britain's auto sector," Kwarteng added.

Stellantis on Tuesday said it was looking at Ellesmere Port becoming carbon neutral by 2025.

British trade union Unite hailed news that the plant's future had been secured.

"Unite has battled for years to secure the future of this site," said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey.

"At times the uncertainly has been unbearable but these plans have ended that, with Ellesmere Port's workers now set to proudly play a leading role in the UK's green transport revolution."

Thanks also to UK government investment, Japanese carmaker Nissan last week unveiled plans to build a massive battery factory in northeastern England, where it will also manufacture a new electric vehicle.

The battery plant, which will power up to 100,000 Nissan electric vehicles annually.

Europe now has projects to build dozens of huge battery factories that could potentially produce 16.7 million battery-electric vehicles by 2030, according to Transport & Environment, a non-governmental organisation.

WASHINGTON — The dominant service sector of the US economy continued to grow strongly in June, but at a less red-hot pace amid supply issues and a slowdown in hiring, according to an industry survey released on Tuesday.

After setting a record in May, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its service sector index fell 3.9 points to 60.1, which still indicates a strong expansion. Any reading above 50 indicates growth.

The sector — which accounts for about two-thirds of the US economy — has been growing for 13 consecutive months according to the ISM non-manufacturing index, and has expanded for all but two months for 137 months.

"The rate of expansion in the services sector remains strong, despite the slight pullback in the rate of growth from the previous month's all-time high," survey chair Anthony Nieves said in a statement. 

"Challenges with materials shortages, inflation, logistics and employment resources continue to be an impediment to business conditions."

New orders and deliveries slowed, but hiring actually declined last month after five months of increases, as the employment index dropped six points to 49.3 per cent.

One survey respondent summed up the difficult labor market: "Employees have been somewhat slow to return to work, and there has been turnover as some pursue new opportunities in a hot job market."

The prices index retreated slightly but remains at stunning 79.5 per cent, the survey showed, reflecting rising prices for materials like lumber, fuel and even packaging.

Only two of 18 industries reported a slowdown in June: Real estate and agriculture, ISM said.

"The summer services revival has taken hold," Kathy Bostjancic of Oxford Economics said in an analysis. "Looking ahead, reopenings and rising confidence fuelled by the much-improved health backdrop — despite the recent uptick in cases — will continue to propel the services boom."

She projected the hiring issues would ease in coming months.

LONDON — US oil prices briefly spiked on Tuesday to near a seven-year peak after OPEC+ crude producers failed to agree on lifting output, fuelling concern about inflation.

But the prices then fell sharply as traders mulled the longer-term implications.

Stocks in Europe and the US fell meanwhile, as several factors appear to have lessened investor appetite for risk, an analyst said.

The contract for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for August delivery leapt to $76.98 per barrel, a level last seen in November 2014, before plunging to $73.45 in later trading.

The price of Brent North Sea oil advanced to a November 2018 peak at $77.84 before plummeting to $74.65.

The OPEC+ group on Monday cancelled a meeting that was supposed to overcome an impasse between the United Arab Emirates and other members on how to lift output. No new date has been set.

"It looks like the market is more worried about a potential crisis at the cartel than it likes the lack of fresh supply coming on in the second half" of the year, Markets.com analyst Neil Wilson remarked.

Deadlock 

Oil producing nations have slowly lifted output in recent months after turning the taps down last year in response to a collapse in prices caused by coronavirus lockdowns.

With demand rocketing on the back of the global rebound — and the US holiday driving season under way — officials had planned to hike output each month by 400,000 barrels a day from August to December.

If no new supplies are forthcoming, the price of oil could hit $80 a barrel or more, some traders say, but if OPEC plunged into crisis, producers might just pump as much crude as they could to take advantage of current price levels.

"Traders seem concerned that the speculative positioning could be unwound in the coming days if the OPEC+ deal were to start to unravel, ultimately leading to more crude and a less stable oil market," Wilson said.

Meanwhile, European equity markets dipped after a mixed Asian session, and in New York, the Dow Jones index rose at first as traders came back from the Independence Day weekend, but then fell back on downbeat data from the service sector.

Hong Kong's tech firms remained in focus owing to fears that a new crackdown on the sector by Chinese authorities will make them unattractive to investors.

"Risk appetite is fleeing as investors return from the long holiday weekend with some jittery headlines on more crackdowns from Beijing, nervousness about the goldilocks period for stocks, and expected further hawkish notes" from a US Federal Reserve (Fed) meeting to be released on Wednesday, commented Edward Moya, a senior analyst at OANDA.

The release of minutes from the Fed's June meeting should provide clues about its monetary policy outlook.

The spike in oil prices has reignited fears about strong inflation, which could force central banks to hike interest rates earlier than thought — and potentially derail the post-COVID recovery.

"Surging oil prices are not good news for the global economic recovery," OANDA analyst Sophie Griffiths said.

LONDON — European stock markets faltered on Monday after a mainly downbeat Asian session, but London rose on takeover news and rising oil prices before an output decision by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

In early afternoon eurozone deals, Frankfurt stocks dipped and Paris flatlined, as investors eyed poor Chinese data.

With US markets shut for the Independence Day holiday, no momentum was expected from the other side of the Atlantic.

London, however, advanced with sentiment boosted by news of a possible bidding war for British supermarket chain Morrisons.

The energy sector was also buoyed by rising oil prices, as top crude producers struggled to reach a deal on lifting output.

China doubts 

"Risk-off sentiment is dominating the markets at the start of the week," noted analyst Sophie Griffiths at the OANDA brokerage.

"Weaker-than-expected China data is overshadowing signs of economic recovery in Europe," she added.

"The China Caixin services Purchasing Managers' Index [PMI] revealed the sector grew at its slowest pace in 14 months in June."

"The weak print comes following Thursday's manufacturing equivalent, which also revealed that growth was slowing," Griffiths said.

Back in London, Morrisons shares jumped 11 per cent after US private equity firm Apollo Global Management revealed it was mulling a counterbid for the food retailer.

Britain's fourth biggest supermarket on Saturday accepted a separate £6.3 billion 

($8.7 billion, 7.3 billion-euro) takeover from a consortium of investment groups.

That came after Morrisons last month rejected a £5.5 billion offer from US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.

"We have now got confirmation of three parties interested in Morrisons — and fear of missing out could attract further interest," noted Russ Mould, investment director at stockbroker AJ Bell.

OPEC's output row 

Oil markets edged up as the United Arab Emirates battled with OPEC and other producers over the rate and timing of their next output increase.

Saudi Arabia is engaged in a rare public spat with its Emirati allies, escalating tensions before another meeting of the OPEC+ alliance of oil producing countries.

The UAE has bitterly opposed a proposal by the alliance to raise production, causing a stalemate that could derail efforts to curb rising crude prices amid a fragile post-pandemic recovery.

"It's the whole group versus one country, which is sad to me but this is the reality," Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman told Bloomberg television, suggesting the UAE were isolated within the 23-member OPEC+ bloc.

Officials have laboured for days over an agreement to pump more as demand picks up with the global recovery and supplies shrink, with fears that failure to find common ground could send prices soaring.

SAN FRANCISCO — A ransomware attack on a US IT company potentially targeted 1,000 businesses, researchers said on Saturday, with one of Sweden's biggest supermarket chains revealing it had to temporarily close around 800 stores after losing access to its checkouts.

Kaseya said on Friday evening it had limited the attack to "a very small percentage of our customers" who use its signature VSA software — "currently estimated at fewer than 40 worldwide".

Cybersecurity firm Huntress Labs said in a Reddit forum, however, that it was working with partners targeted in the attack, and that the software was manipulated "to encrypt more than 1,000 companies".

Ransomware attacks typically involve locking away data in systems using encryption, making companies pay to regain access.

Kaseya describes itself as a leading provider of IT and security management services to small and medium-sized businesses.

VSA, the company's flagship offering, is designed to let companies manage networks of computers and printers from a single point.

"One of our subcontractors was hit by a digital attack, and that's why our checkouts aren't working any more," Coop Sweden, which accounts for around 20 per cent of the country's supermarket sector, said in a statement.

"We regret the situation and will do all we can to reopen swiftly," the cooperative added.

Coop Sweden did not name the subcontractor or reveal the hacking method used against it.

But the Swedish subsidiary of the Visma software group said the problem was linked to the Kaseya attack.

'Precautionary measure' 

Kaseya became aware of a possible incident with VSA at midday Friday on the US East Coast and "immediately shut down" its servers as a "precautionary measure", it said.

It also "immediately notified our on-premises customers via email, in-product notes, and phone to shut down their VSA servers to prevent them from being compromised".

"We believe that we have identified the source of the vulnerability and are preparing a patch to mitigate it," the company said in a statement.

According to the New Zealand government's Computer Emergency Response Team, the attackers were from a hacking group known as REvil.

REvil was also, according to the FBI, behind last month's attack on JBS, one of the world's biggest meat processors, which ended with the Brazil-based company paying bitcoin worth $11 million to the hackers.

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency put out word that it was "taking action to understand and address the recent supply-chain ransomware attack" against Kaseya VSA and the service providers using its software.

CISA is "closely monitoring the situation", said Eric Goldstein, the agency's cybersecurity manager. 

"We are working with Kaseya and coordinating with the FBI to conduct outreach to victims who may be affected," he added in a message sent to AFP.

'Avoid paying' 

Kaseya lists a US headquarters in Florida and an international headquarters in Ireland. 

The UN Security Council this week held its first formal public meeting on cybersecurity, addressing the growing threat of hacks to countries' key infrastructure — an issue US President Joe Biden recently raised with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Several Security Council members acknowledged the grave dangers posed by cybercrime, notably ransomware attacks on key installations and companies.

Multiple US companies, including the computer group SolarWinds and the Colonial oil pipeline, have also recently been targeted by ransomware attacks.

The FBI has blamed those attacks on hackers based in Russian territory.

But typically, "cybercriminals operate company by company", said Gerome Billois, a cybersecurity expert with Wavestone consultancy.

"In this case, they attacked a company that provides software for managing data systems, allowing them to simultaneously target several dozen — possibly even hundreds — of companies," he said. 

Determining exactly how many is difficult, since affected companies lose their communications systems at the same time, Billois said. 

 Kaseya, which had urged its clients to shut down servers running its VSA platform, cannot know whether systems were turned off "voluntarily or by force".

"This is one of the largest, most widespread ransomware attacks I've seen in my career," said Alfred Saikali of law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon.

"I have never seen this many companies hire us in a single day for the same incident. As a general rule, you want to avoid paying the ransom at all costs."