Evergreen watched the cargo on the confiscated Suez ship

“It will not be easy to do, but there are a number of options,” he said. “Empty ships can be deployed to pick up boxes, and some can be loaded onto other container ships crossing the same route to Europe.”

The Ever Give ran aground in the Suez Canal on March 23, carrying about 18,000 loaded containers in equivalent 20-foot units, a standard maritime measure, from Asia to Europe. Rescue teams released the ship six days later, but it remains in a canal holding area, while the Suez Canal Authority is pursuing a $ 916 million lawsuit against the ship’s owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., based in Japan. , including the cost of rescue and others. damage.

Taiwan’s Evergreen operated the ship on a long-term charter vessel from ship owner Shoei Kisen when Ever Date gave birth.

Moving the cargo to another ship would be a physical challenge and could require moving the ship from the anchorage in the great bitter lake of the canal to nearby Egypt, Port Said. Any effort to eliminate shipments would be complicated by the legal claims and taxes surrounding the ship and its cargo customers.

Shoei Kisen invoked the legal shipping clause known as the general average that requires cargo companies on a ship in difficulty to share in the cost of recovering the ship.

Evergreen said in a statement that it was examining the Egyptian court’s order allowing the detention of the ship “and is studying the possibility of treating the ship and the cargo on board separately”.

The closure of Suez has added to delivery delays and rising costs for cargo owners and has further strained a shipping industry facing capacity constraints and congestion caused by the disruptions triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. Evergreen has not identified customers whose deliveries are on Ever Date, but some companies have indicated the potential impact on their operations.

Germany-based discount supermarket Aldi, which runs 10,000 stores in 20 countries, said in a Facebook post last month that a range of products, from rugs to bicycles and riding accessories that should have been arrive on its shelves in March and April will be delayed by about a month on average.

“We are sorry, the special purchases you are looking for may have been delayed due to current events,” said the grocer.

American furniture manufacturer La-Z-Boy Inc.

said at a March 24 investor conference that it has five containers on board.

The UK’s P&I club, insurer Ever Upon, said the $ 916 million claim was “largely unacceptable” and without “detailed justification”.

“The grounding did not lead to pollution or reported injuries. The ship was re-floated after six days, and the Suez Canal immediately resumed its commercial operations, “he said in a statement this week.

The ship was deemed safe to navigate by the American Bureau of Shipping, a shipping company, which said it could move to Port Said for further checks and then to Rotterdam, its original destination.

Write to Costas Paris at [email protected] and Joyu Wang at [email protected]