The end of the Probo Koala
The Hua Wen, ex-Probo Koala is going to be demolished in the coming weeks in China. From August 2006 on, the scattering in Abidjan of desulphurization waste containing mercaptan and hydrogen sulphide has provoked a panic and the paralysis of Ivory Coast business capital. 16 fatalities were officially reported; the victims had been exposed to the toxic emanations. The toxic and stinky waste which had been unloaded from the Probo Koala slop tanks had illegally left Amsterdam and Tallinn, two North European ports (1).
The end of the Probo Koala
The Hua Wen, ex-Probo Koala is going to be demolished in the coming weeks in China. From August 2006 on, the scattering in Abidjan of desulphurization waste containing mercaptan and hydrogen sulphide has provoked a panic and the paralysis of Ivory Coast business capital. 16 fatalities were officially reported; the victims had been exposed to the toxic emanations. The toxic and stinky waste which had been unloaded from the Probo Koala slop tanks had illegally left Amsterdam and Tallinn, two North European ports (1).
Lyubov Orlova, the ghost ship
Lyubov Orlova. IMO 7391434. Passenger ship. Length 100 m, 2,695 t. Cook Islands flag since 2009. Classification society Russian Maritime Register of Shipping. Built in 1976 in Kraljevica (Croatia) by Titovo. Detained in 2002 in Saint Petersburg (Russia). Former Soviet passenger ship owned by Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco) from Vladivostok ; acquired in 1986 by the Lubov Orlova Shipping Company, Malta based with Russian capital. This vessel with a capacity of 122 passengers was finally chartered by Cruise North Expeditions, an Inuit company which assigned her on their summer cruises in the Northern Canada. (Hudson and Baffin Bay …). As a result of salaries not paid to her 51 crew members and debts to her bunker suppliers she was seized on September 25th, 2010 in St John (Newfoundland, Canada). She was replaced by her sister-ship the Bahamian Clipper Adventurer (ex-Anna Tarasova) managed by International Shipping Partners, Miami. On August 27th, 2010, the Clipper Adventurer ran aground on a reef in the region of Nunavut, threatening the Canadian Arctic Ocean (Cf. “A new contaminated site in the Arctic”). The Lyubov Orlova was sold as is for an unknown destination of demolition. US $ 275 per ton.
The Cruising industry Hits the Wall
Costa Concordia – Press release # 5
The refloating of the Costa Concordia should have taken place at the end of 2012, followed by its removal to a port of demolition (or to a submarine graveyard?) in January of 2013. The work of the Italian-American consortium between Titan Salvage and Micoperi was estimated at a cost of 300 million US$. Complications arose with the project and both the time and budget were drawn out. The unforeseen hardness of the undersea granite slows down the setting up of the platform needed to remove the ship. The workers and the Italian authorities are now looking at retrieval in 2014. In the meantime, the wreck on the rocks experiences the pressure of the sea on its exterior and the one of 100,000 tons of polluted water on its interior. The risk of the ship dislodging is increasing. Should the removal of the ship take place according to plan, two key points demand clarification: 1. The methods of treating the water and waste on the interior of the wreck, and 2. The destination of the wreck. Italy has not displayed the ability to properly dismantle ships. The Costa Allegra was sent to the junk-yard in Turkey (1). The transport ferry Repubblica di Amalfi from Grimaldi Lines is still awaiting demolition in India. Thirty-seven ships belonging to Italian companies such as Ignazio Messina, Stradeblu, BM Shipping and SNAV headed for the junk-yard in 2012. Not a single one was demolished in Italy: 19 went to India, 10 to Turkey and 7 to Bangladesh.
“Shipbreaking”: An editorial success by Robin des Bois
The 29th publication of Ship-breaking.com is available (64 pages – 5,2 Mo)
This quarterly publication is an information bulletin and analysis on the demolition of vessels, Ship-breaking.com is read by thousands of specialists across the globe. The letters to the editor section point to the fact that the international public of Ship-breaking.com increases year after year.
The first edition of Ship-breaking.com was published in February 2006 in order for Robin des Bois to better understand the lifecycle of commercial ships and military vessels following the Clemenceau aircraft carrier affair. On this subject Ship-breaking.com has shown that exporting military vessels to Asia for demolition seems to be fixed in stone. Ship-breaking.com n°29 underlines this with the examples of the Russian cruiser Murmansk and the British frigate HMS Plymouth.
