Egypt offers to reduce compensation claim for Suez Canal blockage

Egypt offered to cut claims by a third for compensation from owners of the giant container ship Ever Given that blocked the Suez Canal in March, Suez Canal Authority Chairman told MBC Masr TV channel on Saturday.

According to Osama Rabie, the canal authority said it would reduce the claims for compensation to $600 million from $900 million. The authority also offered payment terms to owners of the Ever Given ship but they have yet to respond, Rabie added.

In mid-April, an Egyptian court granted the Suez Canal Authority’s request for the seizure of Ever Given as compensation talks dragged on. The blockage disturbed shipping markets because hundreds of vessels had to wait for the canal — which can shave two weeks off a journey between Asia and Europe — to reopen.

The authority has said compensation is needed to cover losses of transit fees, damage to the waterway during the dredging and salvage efforts, and for the cost of equipment and labour.

Ever Given, the mega cargo ship almost the length of the Empire State Building, is owned by Japan’s Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. and was being chartered by Taiwan’s Evergreen Line when it got stuck in the southern end of the Suez Canal for six days.