#Egypt may have lost $1 billion from Suez Canal blockage

Egypt wants to be compensated for the roughly $1 billion that it lost after a massive container ship got stuck in the Suez Canal for six days.

Osama Rabie, the CEO of the Suez Canal Authority, revealed the estimate in an interview with Egyptian TV station Sada El-Balad TV on Wednesday night, two days after crews freed the 400-meter-long Ever Given from the vital waterway.

“The amount of damage and losses, and how much the dredgers consumed, will be calculated,” Rabie said. “Estimates, God willing, will reach a billion dollars and a little bit more, this is the country’s right.”

Rabie said those losses include damage to the canal — a crucial trade route between Europe and Asia — transit fees, and equipment and labor costs, according to Bloomberg News.

Rabie did not specify in the interview who the Suez Canal Authority would try to get compensation from, but he said Egypt “should get its due” for the debacle that upended global shipping markets and brought hundreds of vessels to a halt, the outlet reported.

However, Evergreen Marine Corp. — the Taiwanese firm that chartered the Ever Given and whose name was plastered on the boat’s hull — reportedly doesn’t expect to foot the bill and denied responsibility for delays for the cargo it was carrying.

“There is almost no chance that we will be sought to pay compensation,” Evergreen president Eric Hsieh said at a briefing, according to Bloomberg.

A spokesperson for Shoei Kisen Kasa, the Japanese firm that owns the Ever Given, told Bloomberg it would discuss compensation with the canal authority but declined to give further details.

The ship-leasing company said earlier this week that it had not yet received any lawsuits or claims for compensation stemming from the blockage, which held up an estimated $9.6 billion worth of trade each day.

With Post wires