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© Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Egypt court upholds seizure of Japanese ship that blocked Suez Canal
By SAMY MAGDY CAIRO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Desert Tortoise
Please do some homework. Egypt is not among the top ten recipients of Japanese foreign aid. Of the top ten nations in terms of giving foreign aid, only France shows Egypt among its top ten recipients. Looking at the foreign aid recipients among top 30 donor nations Egypt is only a top ten recipient for France and Greece.
https://www.wristband.com/content/which-countries-provide-receive-most-foreign-aid/
Alan Harrison
The whole thing is really down to the owners insurance policy
Whatever happens, I think this will be a very long drawn out affair, and the ship will be a rust bucket by the time this is concluded. After that - razor blades.
Sven Asai
Canceling immediately the whole checkbook diplomacy and freeze all development help money will do. They will excuse down on knees and even give a second container ship as a present. lol
Alan Harrison
We should send a flotilla of warships to escort it home.
Who is "we"?
Desert Tortoise
The likelihood of the Japanese government providing any money to help settle the matter has a vanishingly small probability as that would set an extremely bad precedent, there are probably discussions going on among diplomats to settle this matter quickly.
Desert Tortoise
Even larger ships have used that canal without incident. I am pretty sure this wasn't Ever Given's first trip through the Suez either.
ClippetyClop
Since that possibility exists for all ships the canal would be rendered instantly useless.
Richard Gallagher
Shiver me timbers matey. Why let the hulking thing into the canal if the possibility exists it will lodge itself into an embankment?
Asakaze
@Alan Harrison
Give several examples how Japanese authorities seized foreign ships.
Have the Egypt authorities fully investigated the reason Evergiven slammed into the bank? Or they just want anybody to pay for their financial losses?
Desert Tortoise
They won't. I mentioned above they declared General Average. That means the owners and every company with cargo on that ship will have to pay a share of the cost of the "salvage", to use the legal term from maritime law in proportion to their "exposure". More cargo on board? Pay a bigger proportion of the loss. In the end it will be a bunch of insurance companies that pay Egypt their extortion. Those insurance companies will be the ones fighting it out in the Egyptian courts.
Desert Tortoise
According to the Suez Canal Authority rules, the pilots are only advisory and the ships owners and captains remain fully responsible for the safe passage of their ships through the canal. The same is true with harbor pilots all around the world. Harbor pilots are advisory only and the captain is responsible for safe navigation. When I was in the US Coast Guard and later the US Navy, we never took pilots aboard our ships. Of all the canals in the world I believe only the pilots in the Panama Canal assume responsibility for safe passage of the ships they pilot.
Septim Dynasty
The Egyptian fine is larger than 1/3 of the revenues of the whole Imabari group, and this does not account for the measly small profits since shipbuilding is extremely low in profits and expensive. There is no way that Shoei Kisen Kaisha can afford to pay the fine.
snowymountainhell
Agreed @DesertTortoise 9:39a. Thanks for taking this back to reality.
No J gov bail out necessary, Private business loss is private business loss.
Additionally, some will always try ‘throwing a little shade’ on others @9:23am when they’re not involved in an issue.
Desert Tortoise
The insurance companies retained by the ship owner and each company with cargo in the ship will end up paying the eventual bond to release the ship.
Desert Tortoise
The company that was operating the ship is German. The owner of the ship, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, hired a company called Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement to operate the ship for them. Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement hires the crew, pays them, arranges crew changes, training and manages the day to day hands on operation of the ship. It is up to the people they hire to get the ship from point A to point B safely and on time. Evergreen Marine of Taiwan is just the shipping company. The hire the ship on a long term contract from Shoei Kisen Kaisha to move their customers cargo from point A to point B. The shippers pay Evergreen to accomplish this on a predetermined schedule and Evergreen pays Shoei Kisen Kaisha to provide a ship and a crew to meet the schedule. Shoei Kisen Kaisha then hires Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement to operate their ship for them. All of these entities have insurance companies. The ship will probably have one company that insures the ship itself from physical damage or loss and another company that insures the ships's owner against liability. Each shipper has their own insurance company as will the operating company. Evergreen has basically no exposure. The declaration of General Average as I understand it does not apply to them. However their good reputation is being harmed by the negligence of the ship owner and operator so who knows, maybe they pile on and sue those two companies? All of these insurance companies must now agree with the courts in Egypt on what the eventual cost of the mishap is and what everybody will pay. That ship is probably not going anywhere soon.
Eisenach
Funny, no mention of the Taiwanese company in the article.
Eisenach
"It would seem that Egypt Authorities has borrowed a page from Japan's legal system's book"
and if the Egypt Authorities has borrowed a page from America's legal system's book, they would have blown up the ship.
Eisenach
An expensive situation for owner Shoei Kisen Kaisha.
Japan doesn't pay. Shoei Kisen Kaisha would have to pay.
and what about the Taiwanese company that was operating the ship at the time?
Rudolph Andrew Furtado
Having worked as a " Marine Engineer" on various ships from 1983 to 2006 have transited the Suez Canal numerous times .Amazed at this freak accident that brought the importance of transport of goods through shipping and the Suez Canal into World headlines .The compensation demanded is as long as the length of the " EVER GIVEN " and how will the owners pay the same ? Could definitely put the company into bankruptcy and seems a lengthy court battle is in progress and only hope the ship doesn't become junk in the process.
Goodlucktoyou
We should send a flotilla of warships to escort it home.
Desert Tortoise
Shoei Kisen Kaisha, which interestingly is a wholly owned subsidiary of Imabari Shipbuilding, Japan's largest ship builder and the worlds fourth largest in terms of tonnage and sales value, declared what is called "General Average" soon after the ship ran aground. That is what the article hints at with the sentence "The company said it has notified a number of the owners of the approximately 18,000 containers on the ship to assume part of the damages demand." General Average is a centuries old feature of maritime law most nations still adhere to. With it, the owner and the parties who have cargo on the ship must post a bond in proportion to their exposure to pay for the salvage of a ship that suffers an emergency. Their various insurance companies now must come to agreement among themselves and with the Egyptians how much the eventual bond payments will be. Usually a ship owner is able to post a bond to allow the ship to complete its journey and unload while the owner of the ship and the cargo argue the eventual fine in court. Egypt isn't following the traditional path these sorts of legal disputes follow.
Alan Harrison
It would seem that Egypt Authorities has borrowed a page from Japan's legal system's book.
kwatt
An expensive situation for owner Shoei Kisen Kaisha.
Japan doesn't pay. Shoei Kisen Kaisha would have to pay.
Michael Machida
An expensive situation for Japan.