The government of Egypt has seized the mega-cargo ship Ever Given, the ship that blocked the Suez Canal for days, claiming that the ship’s owners owe the government $900 million for the incident, USA Today reports.
The vessel, the Ever Given, was impounded at the Egyptian port of Ismailia from its Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. The government claims the company needs to pay the costs of the salvage operation, costs of stalled canal traffic and lost transit fees for the week that the Ever Given blocked the canal.
Officials in Ismailia have also opened an investigation into the cause of the Ever Green’s grounding. Accountability will be difficult to secure given that the Ever Green is owned by a Japanese company but operated by a Chinese company sailing under a Panamanian registration.