Egypt ‘seizes’ megaship Ever Given which blocked the Suez Canal until the owners pay $900MILLION compensation.

Maritime data company Lloyd’s List said the blockage had held up an estimated $9.6 billion worth of cargo each day between Asia and Europe.

The MV Ever Given was seized due to its failure to pay $900 million in compensation, Suez Canal Authority chief Osama Rabie was quoted as saying by Al-Ahram, a state-run newspaper.

• The megaship which blocked the Suez Canal has been ‘seized’ on court orders
• The Ever Given was seized due to its failure to pay $900 million in compensation 
• The vessel became lodged in the crucial global trade artery for 6 days last month

A megaship which blocked Egypt‘s Suez Canal and crippled world trade for nearly a week has been ‘seized’ on court orders until the vessel’s owners pay $900 million, canal authorities said Tuesday.

The MV Ever Given was seized due to its failure to pay $900 million in compensation, Suez Canal Authority chief Osama Rabie was quoted as saying by Al-Ahram, a state-run newspaper.

The Japanese-owned, Taiwanese operated and Panama flagged vessel got diagonally stuck in the narrow but crucial global trade artery in a sandstorm on March 23, setting in motion a mammoth six-day-long effort by Egyptian personnel and international salvage specialists to dislodge it.

The canal is economically vital to Egypt, which lost between $12 and $15 million in revenues for each day the waterway was closed, according to the canal authority.

The $900 million compensation figure was calculated based on ‘the losses incurred by the grounded vessel as well as the flotation and maintenance costs, according to a court ruling handed down by the Ismailia Economic Court,’ Rabie added.

He did not explicitly cite the Japanese owners Shoei Kisen Kaisha, but a different source at the SCA said Tuesday that negotiations over damages between that company, insurance firms and the canal authority were ongoing.

The compensation sum includes the costs of the salvage operation, transit fees that were lost and the costs associated with stopping all traffic in the canal

The Ever Given is now about halfway in a holding lake called Bitter Lake as the SCA investigates. All of the ship’s crew are reportedly cooperating and have offered all of the logs or information that has been asked of them.

The ship was trapped for six days before authorities finally managed to set it free in an oepration involving tug boats and diggers

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On Thursday, the ship’s technical managers, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, said in an email that the ship’s crew was cooperating with authorities in their investigation into what led to the vessel running aground. 

They said that Suez Canal Authority investigators have been given access to the Voyage Data Recorder, also known as a vessel’s black box. 

The news was announced by Rabei in a phone interview with government-run broadcaster Sada Elbalad on March 31.

He said the Canal Authority would demand the $1 billion (£722 million) sum in compensation for the six-day delay.

‘It’s the country’s right,’ Rabei said, without specifying who would be responsible for paying the compensation. 

The Suez Canal is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world as it creates the shortest distance for vessels to cross from the Indian Oceans into the Atlantic taking roughly 16 hours.

It is expected either Japanese company Shoei Kisen Kaisha, who own the Panama-flagged Ever Given, or the Taiwanese firm Evergreen Marine Corp, who had charted the ship, will be liable for the compensation.    

But Evergreen Marine Corp have said the accident was not their responsibility and doubt they will be sought for compensation.  

Rabei said that in the past, canal authorities and the ship’s owners have had a good relationship. 

Two Egyptian canal pilots were aboard when the ship got stuck. 

Such an arrangement is customary to guide vessels through the narrow waterway, but the ship’s captain retains ultimate authority, according to experts. 

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