Two months after the grounding of the “Ever Given” in the Suez Canal, Egypt is trying to obtain substantial compensation from the owner of the freighter.
The case had shaken the shipping industry. The “Ever Given”, a container ship, had blocked the Suez Canal for nearly a week. The consequences had been terrible: during her reorientation, after having failed, the ship had caused the congestion of the canal for three more days, 400 other ships having been stranded. The Dutch company Boskalis and the Egyptian authorities had to remove more than 30 cubic meters of sand. It took 000 tugs to get the “Ever Given” afloat. But the consequences were much more serious: the Suez Canal represents 13% of the world's freight transport. The grounding of the ship would have caused a huge shortfall, since the transport of goods via Suez represents 12 million euros per hour, or more than 350 million euros per day.
This explains the anger of Egypt, which quickly asked for reparation. But the risk of a legal vacuum was omnipresent: if it was built in Japan, owned by a Japanese company and operated by a Taiwanese company, Evergreen Marine, the vessel flies the Panamanian flag and its technical management. is provided by a German company. The Egyptian state therefore seized the ship in early April. Last Sunday, Egyptian courts confirmed the immobilization of the boat despite Japanese appeals. The freighter should only be released after Egypt has obtained compensation.
Egypt lost nearly $ 100 million
The Suez Canal Authority (SCA), which manages the canal, initially claimed $ 916 million in compensation from the shipowner. But certain of not achieving its goals, the SCA finally decided to halve its demands almost in half. The Suez Canal Authority is therefore now waiting for $ 500 million. A drop in requirements, in particular due to the estimate of the cargo. "After the company that owns the ship informed us that the value of the goods transported was $ 750 million, we lowered the amount of compensation to $ 550 million, out of respect," said Admiral Ossama Rabie, boss of the SCA.
Egypt has, since the stranding, regularly lowered its demand. Because at the end of the day, the Egyptian authorities had estimated the value of the goods transported at $ 3 billion. But this sum is far from what the country spent to clear the way: the SCA indeed indicates that the closure of the canal caused a deficit of 12 to 15 million dollars daily, or at most 100 million dollars. . The blockage of the channel actually had a greater impact for all the companies blocked for several days: between 6 and 10 billion dollars per day, according to the insurer Allianz. Because, in all, 26 million tonnes of goods were blocked for a week. While waiting for the insurance compensation mechanisms, the legal battle pits Egypt against the Japanese owner. And the SCA hopes to bend the owner.