Egypt may seek $1 billion in compensation after a container vessel blocked the Suez Canal for a week. The figure is an estimate for the money incurred in lost transit fees, dredging and salvage efforts, cost of equipment, labour and so on, said Osama Rabie, chief of the Suez Canal Authority. He did not indicate who the authority would seek compensation from but he did point to the container vessel and its cargo being worth $3.5 billion.
The owner of the container vessel, Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corporation, said it was not responsible for any delays in the cargo it was transporting. The company’s agent in Egypt dismissed reports that a dispute was building up. He said in the last 40 years there had been no dispute between the authority and Evergreen, which avoided any comment on the current scenario where the vessel remains moored in the Great Bitter Lake, well within Egyptian waters.
