Ever Given dispute: Speculation about $540M settlement is pointless

An agreement between the owners of the 20,000 TEU containership Ever Given and the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has yet to be sealed.

The vessel’s P&I insurer, the UK P&I Club released the following statement last week: “Following extensive discussions with the Suez Canal Authority’s negotiating committee over the past few weeks, an agreement in principle between the parties has been reached.”

“Together with the owner and the ship’s other insurers we are now working with the Suez Canal Authority to finalize a signed settlement agreement as soon as possible. Once the formalities have been dealt with, arrangements for the release of the vessel will be made.”

Al Arabiya reported a couple of days ago – citing unnamed sources – that the preliminary settlement was signed for $540 million in compensation.

Any speculation about the compensation amount was pointless until steps were taken to unmoor Ever Given, Mohy El Alwany, a lawyer for the Suez Canal Authority, told The National.

The SCA had originally asked for $916 million to cover lost revenue due to halted ship traffic and for damages caused to the waterway.

With a length of 400 meters and a width of nearly 60 meters, the 20,000TEU container vessel Ever Given was wedged in this vital shipping route for six days this March, blocking all shipping traffic.

For the refloating of the 224,000-ton container vessel, approximately 30,000 cubic meters of sand was dredged to help free the vessel and a total of eleven harbor tugs and two powerful seagoing tugs (Alp Guard and Carlo Magna) were deployed.

The intense salvage effort has focused on removing sand from below the front and rear of the ship, while also pulling the ship with tugboats.

Workers managed to free the rear part of the ship first, swinging the stern into the canal while the bow was still stuck in the sloping sand that forms the side of the canal.