Egypt offers to cut compensation claim for blocking of Canal

Egypt offered to reduce claims by a third for compensation from owners of the container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March, Suez Canal Authority Chairman Osama Rabie told MBC Masr channel television channel.

The canal authority said it would reduce the claims for compensation to $600 million from $900 million, according to Rabie. The SCA also offered payment terms to owners of the Ever Given container ship but they have yet to respond, he said.

An Egyptian court granted the Suez Canal Authority’s request for the seizure of the vessel in mid-April as compensation talks dragged on. The blockage roiled shipping markets because hundreds of vessels had to wait for the canal—which can shave two weeks off a journey between Asia and Europe—to reopen.

The canal authority has said compensation is needed to cover losses of transit fees, damage to the waterway during the dredging and salvage efforts, and for the cost of equipment and labor.

The 400-meter-long Ever Given is owned by Japan’s Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. and was being chartered by Taiwan’s Evergreen Line when it got stuck in the southern end of the canal for six days.

Egypt Suez Canal revenue increased by 2.8% in the first four months of 2021 to $1.96 billion comared with with $1.9 billion a year earlier.