Suez megaship owner haggles over $900mn release demand

Tokyo, Japan - The Japanese owner of a megaship seized after blocking the Suez Canal has said it is negotiating with Egyptian authorities after they demanded US$900mn in compensation for its release.

The 200,000-tonne MV Ever

Given got diagonally stuck in the narrow but crucial global trade artery in a sandstorm on March 23, triggering a mammoth sixday-long effort to dislodge it.

Maritime data company Lloyd’s List said the blockage by the vessel, longer than four football fields, held up an estimated US$9.6bn-worth of cargo between Asia and Europe each day it was stuck.

Egypt also lost between US$12mn and US$15mn in revenues for each day the waterway was closed, according to the canal authority.

The MV Ever Given was later seized ‘due to its failure to pay US$900mn’ compensation, Suez Canal Authority chief Osama Rabie was quoted as saying by the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper. Its fate is ‘now... in the legal arena’, a spokeswoman for the ship’s owner Shoei Kisen Kaisha told AFP on Wednesday.

An unnamed spokesperson was also quoted by Japan’s Jiji Press agency as saying the firm was ‘at odds with the canal authority in talks over the appropriate amount [of compensation]’ but that discussions were ongoing.

The compensation figure was calculated based on ‘the losses incurred by the grounded vessel as well as the flotation and maintenance costs’ Rabie said, citing a ruling handed down by the Ismailia Economic Court in Egypt.