The law firm representing the vessel’s owner, Japan’s Shoei Kisen Kaisha, said yesterday a formal agreement had been reached on the amount of compensation due to the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) after the grounding of the vessel.
“The UK Club is pleased to announce that, following the agreement in principle between the parties, and after further meetings with SCA negotiating committee and numerous court hearings, good progress has been made and a formal solution has now been agreed”, UK P&I Club, the organization took charge the compensation issues about incident, said in an update.
“Preparations for the release of the vessel will be made and an event marking the agreement will be held at the authority’s headquarters in Ismailia in due course”.
The two sides came to an agreement about the compensation. Initially, the Suez Canal Authority sought compensation worth $916 million, but the owners turned it down. Subsequently, the claim was reduced to $550 million to cover the costs incurred from six-day blockage. Final details on the settlement amount have not been disclosed.
The SCA said that a signing ceremony would be held in the city of Ismailia on July 7th when the ship would be allowed to leave the Great Bitter Lakes.
Closing an incident leaves many morals
Although, there was no loss of cargo or any pollution, this incident caused a massive gridlock for the global trade because about 12% of the total trade value, nearly 10% of global shipping oil and 8% of global LNG are transported through this canal. It is estimated that each day about 6-10 billion USD of global trade was damaged.
On 29 March, the ship was refloated and towed to the Great Bitter Lake region, enabling SCA to resume commercial operations and clear the backlog. However, Ever Given, with 25 sailors on board, was arrested on April 13, 2021, after negotiations on compensation hit a wall.
Minh Duc
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