Egypt demands compensation after Suez Canal blockage
Egyptian authorities have seized the Ever Given cargo ship that was lodged in the Suez Canal for several days last month, ordering the ship’s owner to pay $900 million in compensation.
CNN reports; that Egyptian authorities have ordered Ever Given’s owner, Japanese chartering company Shoei Kisen Kaisha, to foot the hefty bill for losses inflicted by the traffic stop the ship caused. According to Egypt’s state-run news agency Al Ahram; the bill also includes maintenance fees and rescue operation costs.
Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie of the Suez Canal Authority said the hulking Ever Given would not be allowed to leave the country until compensation is settled on with the vessel’s Japanese owner, the company Shoei Kisen Kaishad.
“The vessel is now officially impounded,” Rabie told Egypt’s state-run television late Monday. “They do not want to pay anything.”
The official said the order to impound the vessel was issued Monday; by a court in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, and that the vessel’s crew was informed Tuesday.
He said prosecutors in Ismailia also opened a separate investigation into what led Ever Given to run aground. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media.
The Ever Given; which carries some $3.5 billion in cargo between Asia and Europe; ran aground March 23 in the narrow, man-made canal dividing continental Africa from the Asian Sinai Peninsula.
The vessel had crashed into the bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal a few miles north of the southern entrance; near the city of Suez.
On March 29, salvage teams freed the ship; ending a crisis that had halted billions of dollars worth of trade a day. The vessel has since idled in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, just north of the site where it previously blocked the canal.
The unprecedented six-day shutdown, which raised fears of extended delays, goods shortages, and rising costs for consumers, added to the strain on a shipping industry already under pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic.
