$1bn dollars, please. The price of the Suez shutdown

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has threatened to make a $1bn claim for the losses caused by the closure of the Suez Canal by the ULCS Ever Given.

SCA chairman and managing director, Osama Rabie, told local media that the authority is attempting to quantify the losses, damage and cost the grounding caused during the six-day hiatus.

“Estimates, God willing, will reach a billion dollars and a little bit more,” he said, according to a Reuters account of a report on Egyptian television broadcaster Sada Elbalad.

“This is the right of the country,” Rabie said, according to Reuters. “This country should get its due.”

The sky-high claim is seen in legal circles as the opening gambit in what is likely to be a long-running legal battle.

However, the Ever Given’s Taiwan-based charterers, Evergreen, do not appear to expect to have to pay for any liability. Evergreen’s president, Eric Hsieh told reporters in Taiwan: “Our risk exposure to the incident is very, very low… We are only responsible for the carriage of cargoes on board. Even if we have some claims, those will be covered by insurance.”