Egypt seizes ship that jammed Suez Canal, says owners owe $1B

Twenty-five crew members are stuck on the ship amid dispute.

A few weeks ago, Egypt was frantically trying to get the massive container ship Ever Given out of the Suez Canal.

Now, authorities are saying the vessel is not allowed to leave.

In the latest complication to the ill-fated voyage, Egypt has seized the Ever Given over its owners’ “failure to pay an amount of $900 million,” the state-run news outlet Ahram Gate reported. That amount represents the total compensation that Egypt believes it is owed for the six-day blockage of the Suez Canal, including lost revenue from ships that would ordinarily have traveled through the canal during that time, as well as costs for damage to the crucial waterway and the equipment and manpower deployed in the 144hour scramble to free the ship.

Since being dislodged from the narrow section of the canal where it ran aground in late March, blocking commerce worth billions of dollars, the Ever Given has been anchored in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, which is located at the midpoint of the canal. Twenty-five crew members, all Indian nationals, remain stuck on board.

The ruling allowing Egypt to seize the Ever Given was issued by a court in the city of Ismailia, on the west bank of the canal, according to the Ahram Gate website. The Suez Canal Authority, which made the request, noted that Egypt’s maritime trade laws allow the “precautionary seizure” of vessels that have outstanding debts, including failure to pay the costs emanating from an accident.

“The vessel will remain here until investigations are complete and compensation is paid,” Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), told Egyptian state television last week, according to the Wall Street Journal. “The minute they agree to compensation, the vessel will be allowed to move.”

But the National Union of Sea

farers in India argues that refusing to let the crew off the ship effectively amounts to holding them for ransom. “If the SCA has suffered losses, they can sort it out with those involved with the ship,” the union’s general secretary, Abdulgani Serang, told the Times of India on Sunday.

The Ever Given is owned by Shoei Kisen Kaisha, a Japanese holding company, but leased by Evergreen Marine Corp., a Taiwan-based conglomerate. A separate German firm, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, was responsible for hiring the crew.

Egypt has not said which company it expects to pay for the damage, but Shoei Kisen Kaisha told the Journal last week that it was “in the middle of negotiations” with Suez authorities. The company has filed a lawsuit in British court aimed at limiting its liability for the incident.

Investigations into how the Ever Given became lodged sideways in the canal are still ongoing. In a recent interview, Rabie suggested that the captain could have “made a mistake” with the boat’s steering or speed, according to Kyodo News. He emphasized that the two Suez Canal pilots who were on board the boat to offer guidance were not ultimately responsible for making decisions, and dismissed the idea that strong winds had pushed the boat off course.

Rabie did not cite any evidence or say how he arrived at that conclusion.

DPA/ZUMA PRESS/TNS A tugboat drags the Panama-flagged ship Ever Given in the Suez Canal after the ship was successfully freed and refloated March 29 after six days blocking the canal.

MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES VIA AP A satellite image shows the cargo ship Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal on March 27. Investigations into how the ship became lodged sideways are still ongoing, with many theories circulating.