The shipowner of Ever Given, the giant container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for a week, has confirmed that it is in talks with the Egyptian authorities to demand the payment of $ 900 million to allow the ship to sail.
The 200,000-tonne Ever Given ran aground on March 23, blocking traffic on the canal, which secures 10% of global trade, before disengaging on March 29 with the help of international experts.
On Monday, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram revealed that Egypt is seeking $ 900 million in damages.
The fate of the ship is now being played in the field of justice, said a representative of the ship-owning company Shoei Kisen.
According to the Suez Canal Authority, Egypt lost $ 12 million to $ 15 million a day to blockade the Suez Canal, which carried 19,000 ships by 2020, or 51.5 ships a day.
The canal is a major source of revenue for Egypt. Cruise fees generated $ 5.7 billion in Cairo during 2019-2020.
Yesterday, the head of the Suez Canal Authority told Egyptian television that negotiations were under way on a claim for compensation.
Egypt did not make “any mistake” in the incident, it claimed, blaming the ship. He revealed to Al-Ahram that the Egyptian claim amounts to $ 900 million and that there are points of friction with the ship-owning company and the insurance company about the amount.
The amount requested by the Egyptian side corresponds to the financial losses caused by the closure of the canal as well as to the cost of the detachment and maintenance operation.
More than 400 ships were immobilized during the critical week at the north and south entrances of the canal and it took several days for the ships’ traffic to normalize.
