Suez Canal blockage: Dislodged ship still held up in Egypt over $900m compensation talks

A court in Egypt has ruled that Ever Given, a massive cargo ship that blocked the Suez Canal for six days last month, be seized after a request from waterways operator, demanding $900 million in compensation.

Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), announced this in a press statement on Tuesday.

“The Panamanian vessel Evergreen, which ran aground earlier for six days was seized for failure to pay an amount of $900 million, which is the value of what it caused,” he said.

On March 23, the mega-container ship got stuck in the canal — the shortest shipping route from Europe to Asia, blocking an estimated $9.6 billion worth of goods per day.

The cargo ship which blocked two sections of the canal was eventually refloated and freed six days later.

The SCA said compensation is needed to cover losses of transit fees, damage to the waterway during the dredging and salvage efforts, and the cost of equipment and labor. It has calculated that it missed out on about $15 million of transit fees each day.

Last week, Rabie told Egypt’s Sada El Balad channel that the Ever Given would not leave until investigations on how the ship got stuck was completed and compensation paid.

He estimated daily losses of the canal due to the six days blockage caused by the Ever Given ship at $12 to $15 million.

“We will reach over a billion dollars in compensation. We saved them so much by rescuing the ship without any major damage or losses. The whole ship could’ve been lost,” he said.