This coming Friday will mark two months since the Ever Given container ship was finally dislodged after being stuck in the southern channel of the Suez Canal, but its six-day ordeal is nothing compared to the impasse and impounding facing its Japanese owners.
Saddled with a bill of penalties issued by the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), Shoei Kisen Kaisha is refusing to accept the SCA’s demands to be compensated for loss of reputation, salvaging expenses, and related costs.
Initially charging $916 000, the SCA slashed the penalties bill down to $600 000 in the hope that the Ever Given will finally continue its voyage from Great Bitter Lakes where it’s currently being held.
However, a further $50 000 reduction down to $550 000 has not changed Shoei Kisen’s steadfast refusal to accept the SCA’s bill.
An offer that the box ship behemoth with 20 388 containers on board be released if $200 000 be paid forthwith and the rest according to terms later on, has also not swayed the vessel’s owners.
Instead they have been firing courtroom broadsides at the SCA, saying that it’s the authority’s fault in the first place that the Evergreen carrier got stuck because of inadequate tugboat facilitation.
In fact, Shoei Kisen claims that the Ever Given’s impounding is illegal, and has since issued a counterclaim of $100 000 for the vessel’s delay in the Suez’s midway saltwater lake.
When the SCA and Shoei Kisen head back to court on Friday, it will be exactly two months to the day since the vessel was refloated on May 29.
