Egypt has offered to reduce the value of the claims that they demanded from the owners of the Ever Given ship for the damages caused by the closure of the Suez Canal in March.

The head of the Suez Canal Authority, Osama Rabie, said that Egypt had offered to reduce claims by a third and explained in media statements that the Canal Authority had said that it would reduce compensation claims from $900 million to $600 million. He added that the authority had also offered easy payment terms to the owners of the container vessel Ever Given, but they had not responded yet. This sudden reduction comes a few days after controversial statements made by the Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris. He said that the amount of compensation that Egypt requested from the ship owners is severely exaggerated.

The giant ship and its cargo are still being held in the Egyptian Suez Canal, amid the insurance company’s objection over the compensation it must pay due to the crisis of disrupting navigation movement inside the canal. The insurance company of the seized Ever Given ship said it had filed an appeal with the court and indicated again that the compensation was exaggerated, according to media reports. A few days ago, the Egyptian Economic Court rejected the company’s appeal and upheld the decision to seize the tanker.

There are still 25 crew members on board the Ever Given, all of them from India. At the same time, Egypt estimated its daily losses in canal revenues as between $12 to $15 million due to navigation disruption. The Suez Canal Authority intends to expand and deepen the southern part of the waterway in which the giant container ship was suspended last March.