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According to a report, the operators of the Ever Given can move its containers to other ships.
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The ship will not be able to deliver its goods until $ 1 billion in damages have been paid to Egyptian authorities.
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But transporting the containers can become a physical, legal and logistical nightmare.
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According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, the operators of the Ever Given ship are investigating the possibility of transferring its 18,000 cargo containers to other vessels.
The 224,000-tonne cargo ship, which ran aground in the Suez Canal on March 23 and was released six days later, has not yet been able to leave the Suez Canal after Egyptian authorities announced that they would first have to pay $ 1 billion in damages.
But the shipping operator, Taiwanese company Evergreen Marine Corp., is facing increasing pressure to deliver its thousands of containers – filled with everything from toilet paper to coffee and furniture – to its frustrated customers.
Read more: The four biggest losers of the Suez Canal fiasco – and 4 surprising winners
“Customers are asking when their boxes will be delivered after the seizure on the ship, and the prospect of transporting the cargo containers to other ships and delivering them to customers in Europe is now on the table,” is an unnamed source, who directly involved in the case. told the Wall Street Journal.
But any attempt to remove the 18,000 20-foot containers from the Ever Given could become a major physical and logistical challenge, which may require officials to move the vessel, which is currently in the canal’s artificial Great Bitter Lake, to to move the nearby city. of Port Said.
“It will not be easy to do, but there are a number of options,” the same source told the Wall Street Journal. “Empty ships can be used to load boxes and some can be loaded onto other cargo ships cruising on the same route to Europe.”
The move could also cause extra legal headaches, mainly related to claims and fees surrounding the vessel and its cargo customers.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Evergreen Marine Corp. said in a statement that it was investigating the Egyptian court order “and dealing with the possibility of the vessel and the cargo on board separately.”
Shoei Kisen Kaisha, the owner of the ship, filed a general lawsuit against the vessel’s operators earlier this month, demanding that companies carrying cargo on the vessel share the risk and cost associated with repairing the ship.
Two maritime lawyers, Bruce Paulsen and Brian Maloney of Seward & Kissel, told the Maritime Executive this week: -owners with property in transport on board the vessel. “
“Apart from a settlement, the cargo owners are now facing extra costs and delays while the arrest of the vessel is maintained,” they added.
The ship was sailing from Asia to Europe when it got stuck in the canal, causing severe delivery delays and an epic traffic jam of about 400 other ships, which have since started moving through the canal again.
Evergreen has not identified the customers whose shipping is to the Ever Given, although some companies, including IKEA and the ALDI supermarket in Germany, have already said they are affected.
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