Egypt has seized the Ever Given – the massive container ship that blocked the Suez Canal and disrupted global trade for days – as officials negotiate a hefty compensation payment with the boat’s owner, reports said.
An Egyptian court allowed the Suez Canal Authority to impound the ship until the Japanese firm that owns the ship has scored more than $ 900 million for last month’s traffic jam, the state newspaper Al-Ahram reported Tuesday.
That amount accounts for the cost of moving the 400-foot ship after it ran aground, along with the cost of lost transportation costs and stalled traffic that accumulated during the six-day blockage, according to the Associated Press.
Ship leasing company Shoei Kisen Kaisha is disputing 90 percent of that amount in negotiations with Egyptian officials, Suez Canal Authority chairman Osama Rabie told local media.
“They don’t want to pay anything,” Rabie told a state-run television network on Monday.
He also said the channel had suffered “great moral damage” in addition to the financial cost of the debacle.
Shoei Kisen told news outlets that the Ever Given had been seized and the channel filed a claim for compensation, but negotiations were underway.
‘They still talk to us. So we will continue negotiations on compensation, ”spokesman Ryu Murakoshi told The Wall Street Journal.
Rabie previously estimated that Egypt lost about $ 1 billion as a result of the snafu that brought hundreds of ships to a halt and held up billions of dollars worth of goods.
The Ever Given – which carried more than $ 3.5 billion in cargo when it ran aground on March 23 – now sits in the Bitter Lakes near the canal’s southern terminus as officials are investigating the incident, Al-Ahram said.
Crews managed to free the Ever Given on March 29 after shipments of animals, consumer goods and even sex toys were reportedly entangled in the ordeal.
Shoei Kisen has apologized for the mess. But Evergreen Marine Corp. – the Taiwanese company that chartered the Ever Given and whose name was plastered on the hull of the boat – reportedly did not expect to pay the bill and denied responsibility for delays for the cargo it carried.
With pole wires