The canal director and a judicial official said Tuesday that Egyptian authorities had impounded a giant container ship that had blocked the Suez Canal last month due to a financial dispute with its owner.
According to Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, the hulking Ever Given would not be able to leave the country until a settlement is reached with the vessel’s Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd.
“The vessel has now been legally impounded,” he said late Monday on Egypt’s state-run television. “They refuse to pay anything.”
The vessel’s owner made no immediate comment.
Rabie did not specify the amount of money sought by the canal authority. A judicial official, however, stated that it requested at least $900 million. The $900 million figure was also published by the state-run Ahram daily.
This figure includes the expense of the rescue process, the costs of stalled canal flow, and missed transit fees for the week that the Ever Given was blocking the canal.
According to the official, the order to impound the vessel was given Monday by a court in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, and the vessel’s crew was notified on Tuesday.
Prosecutors in Ismailia, he added, had also launched a separate investigation into what caused the Ever Provided to capsize. Since he was not allowed to address the public, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Rabie stated that talks to negotiate an agreement on payments were still pending.
In an interview with The Associated Press last week, he cautioned that taking the matter to court would be more damaging to the vessel’s owner than settling with canal administration.
Since the vessel is owned by a Japanese company, run by a Taiwanese shipper, and flagged in Panama, the litigation may be complicated.
The Panama-flagged ship was carrying $3.5 billion in freight between Asia and Europe when it ran aground March 23 in the short, man-made canal that separates continental Africa from the Asian Sinai Peninsula.
The ship had collided with the bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 6 kilometres (3.7 miles) north of the canal’s southern entrance, near Suez.
On March 29, salvage crews freed the Ever Given, bringing an end to a crisis that had clogged one of the world’s most important waterways and stopped billions of dollars in maritime trade. The ship is now idling in Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, just north of where it formerly blocked the canal.
The unexpected six-day shutdown, which sparked concerns about lengthy delays, product shortages, and increasing consumer prices, contributed to the burden on the shipping industry, which was still under strain due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Rabie, the canal’s president, told state television that the canal authority had done nothing wrong. He refused to comment on potential factors, such as the ship’s speed or the strong winds that buffeted it during a sandstorm.
When asked if the ship’s owner was at fault, he said, “Of course, indeed.”
Rabie stated that the authority’s investigation will be completed on Thursday.
