The tug of war between the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) and the owners of the Ever Given containership is heating up despite attempts to settle damage claims out of court.

Latest development indicate that the UK P&I Club refuted claims from SCA that the Master of Ever Given was to blame for the infamous grounding of the vessel back in March causing a massive traffic jam in the waterway.

The 20,000 TEU, Panama-flagged, containership is owned by Japanese company Shoei Kisen Kaisha and was chartered by Taiwanese Evergreen Marine Corporation.

SCA stated in a recently  that the ship was sailing too fast before it ran aground.

“The owners of the Ever Given and their P&I and hull and machinery insurers look forward to responding to these allegations within the Egyptian court proceedings. Critically it is important to clarify that whilst the master is ultimately responsible for the vessel, navigation in the canal transit within a convoy is controlled by the Suez Canal pilots and SCA vessel traffic management services. Such controls include the speed of the transit and the availability of escort tugs,” the indemnity insurer said.

Tensions continue to brew at a time when the two sides are attempting to reach an ‘amicable’ settlement over damage claims related to the grounding of Ever Given and its refloating. This has resulted in the postponement of the judicial process in Egypt until the second half of June.