Evergreen looks at transporting cargo from Suez ship

“It will not be easy to do, but there are a number of options,” this person said. “Empty ships can be used to load boxes, and some can be loaded onto other cargo ships that cross the same route to Europe.”

The Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal on March 23 while hauling approximately 18,000 loaded containers in 20-foot container-equivalent units, a standard maritime measure, from Asia to Europe. Salvage crews released the ship six days later, but it remains in a holding area in the canal, while the Suez Canal Authority insists a $ 916 million claim against the ship’s owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., in Japan. including the storage costs and others. insurance.

Evergreen, Taiwan, was driving the vessel on a long-term charter from shipowner Shoei Kisen when the Ever Given ran aground.

Moving the cargo to another ship would be a physical challenge and it may be necessary to move the vessel from its anchorage in the Great Bitter Lake from the canal to Egypt’s nearby Port Said. Any attempt to remove the deliveries will be hampered by the legal claims and fees surrounding the vessel and its cargo customers.

Shoei Kisen called for the legal clause for shipping, known as the general average, and demanded that companies carrying cargo on an emergency vessel share in the cost of repairing the ship.

Evergreen said in a statement that he was investigating the Egyptian court order to allow the ship to be detained “and to treat the possibility of the vessel and the cargo on board separately.”

The closure of Suez further contributed to delivery delays and rising costs for cargo owners and further hampered a shipping industry that struggled with capacity constraints and congestion due to disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Evergreen has not identified the customers whose shipment is on the Ever Given, but some companies have pointed out the potential impact of their operations.

Germany discount supermarket Aldi, which operates 10,000 stores in 20 countries, said in a Facebook post last month that it was delaying a range of products from floor mats to bicycles and riding accessories that would be on the shelves in March and April would be by about a month on average.

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

American furniture maker La-Z-Boy Inc.

at an investor conference on March 24 said he had five holders on the vessel.

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

‘The grounding did not result in any pollution and no injuries were reported. “The vessel was lifted after six days and the Suez Canal immediately resumed its commercial operations,” reads the week’s statement.

The American Bureau of Shipping, a marine classification society, considered the ship safe to sail, and said it could go to Port Said for further investigations and then to Rotterdam, the original destination.

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