Sold to Breakers 390 USD/TO
News
MATTHEW TT
Sold/Decommissioned
The efforts to sell the 'Matthew' were continuing after eight men were jailed for a total of 129 years on July 4, 2025. The ship, which remained tied up in Passage West, has cost the state over nine million Euro to crew and maintain, with the engines running for almost two years now. A preferred bidder has been identified, but there was an extremely large amount of regulation to adhere to with the Marine surveying office in terms of adhering to that legislation and working through the embassies in Colombia, with the flag station Panama, to ensure to get all the regulatory compliance before the vessel can be disposed of.
ASTORIA
Sold/Decommissioned
The 'Astoria' will probably be picked up in Rotterdam next week with the own tug of the Belgian scrapyard Galloo. That depends on when all the fittings are off the ship and when the tug is available. It is currently still active on another offshore project of the company. The towing job is also weather-dependent. The opening bid of 200,000 Euros immediately turned out to be a hit at the public sale in the Rotterdam court on June 17. There is still an outstanding invoice of almost 450,000 Euros in unpaid port fees. Galloo will also pay that, plus an additional, unspecified amount,. ‘All outstanding debts must be paid in connection with the right of retention before we can bring the ship to Ghent.’Because the ship sailed under the Portuguese flag, it has to be broken up at a European-approved recycling yard. Normally, these types of larger ships go to Turkey or Asia, countries where environmental standards are much lower, and the wages too.’ The dismantling of the 'Astoria' will be work -intensive, The 350 cabins, the public areas, such as playrooms and restaurants will have to be manually demolished. The dismantling of the rest of the ship will follow. That will certainly take a few months. Galloo expects that 12,000 tons of material, including metals, wood, glass and plastics, will be collected. The company expects to recycle ‘more than 97% of that into renewable raw materials.
