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Ever Given Owner Haggles Over Egypt's $900m Release Demand
The 200,000-ton MV Ever Given got diagonally stuck in the narrow but crucial global trade artery in a sandstorm on March 23, triggering a mammoth six-day-long effort to dislodge it. Maritime data company Lloyd's List said the blockage by the vessel, longer than four football fields, held up an estimated $9.6 billion-worth of cargo between Asia and Europa  ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...each day it was stuck. Egypt also lost between $12 and $15 million in revenues for each day the waterway was closed, according to the canal authority. The MV Ever Given was later seized "due to its failure to pay $900 million" compensation, Suez Canal Authority chief Osama Rabie was quoted as saying by local media. Its fate is "now... in the legal arena," a spokeswoman for the ship's owner Shoei Kisen Kaisha told AFP Wednesday. An unnamed spokesperson was also quoted by Japan's Jiji Press agency as saying the firm was "at odds with the canal authority in talks over the appropriate amount (of compensation)" but that discussions were ongoing. The Japanese-owned, Taiwanese-operated and Panama-flagged ship was moved to unobstructive anchorage in the canal after it was freed on March 29, and tailbacks totaling 420 vessels at the northern and southern entrances to the canal were cleared in early April. The compensation figure was calculated based on "the losses incurred by the grounded vessel as well as the flotation and maintenance costs" Rabie said, citing a ruling handed down by the Ismailia Economic Court in Egypt. The grounding of the ship and the intensive salvage efforts are also reported to have resulted in significant damage to the canal. The Suez Canal earned Egypt just over $5.7 billion in the 2019/20 fiscal year, according to official figures -- little changed from the $5.3 billion earned back in 2014. Related: Ever Given: 2021-04-04 Suez Canal backlog is CLEARED: More than 400 supertankers stuck in shipping traffic jam are freed after week-long backlog which Ever Given: 2021-04-03 Egypt Expects $1b in Damages Over Stuck Ship in Suez Canal Ever Given: 2021-03-30 Giant container ship that blocked Suez Canal set free, backlog to be cleared in four days Posted by: Fred 2021-04-15 |
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