Egypt has slashed millions of dollars off its compensation claim against the Japanese owner of a megaship that blocked the Suez canal in March, the canal authority chief said late Sunday. Egyptian authorities had seized the 200,000-tonne MV Ever Given in April and lodged a claim in a local court demanding $916 million from its owner Shoei Kisen Kaisha in compensation for the ship’s release. But Suez Canal Authority (SCA) head Osama Rabie said the claim had been dropped to $550 million in a televised interview with talk show host Amr Adib late Sunday. “After the owners of the ship estimated the costs of the cargo loaded to be around $775 million, we respected this and reduced the (compensation) claim to $550 million,” he said. Egypt lost between $12 million and $15 million in revenues for each day the canal was closed, according to SCA figures.

Source: The North Africa Journal May 24, 2021 16:41 UTC