The Ever Given may no longer be physically stuck in the Suez Canal, but it’s … legally stuck:
Lieutenant General Osama Rabie, Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, confirmed in a press statement, today, Tuesday, that the Panamanian vessel “Evergiven”, 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. The delinquent ship caused losses to the Authority as well as the flotation and maintenance process, according to a court ruling issued by the Ismailia Economic Court. [Ahram Gate (Egypt)]
WaPo notes there’s some confusion over who pays what:
The Ever Given is owned by Shoei Kisen Kaisha, a Japanese holding company, but leased by Evergreen Marine Corp., a Taiwan-based conglomerate. Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, a German firm, 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.
Even more surprising – to me – is no word of other shipping companies, large and small, suing over an incident which cost any company ordinarily using the Suez Canal a good chunk of change.
Which leads me to wonder why these ships don’t carry insurance against exactly what happened. Will no insurance company offer it? I did a little digging but came up empty. It seems like a good idea.
In case you wonder how much it costs to use the Suez Canal, here’s a video that talks about that. I haven’t finished watching it myself, but this seems like a good place to put it.
