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Soaring scrap-metal prices have prompted a start on cutting up a condemned ship which has been berthed on the Auckland waterfront for more than seven years.
The Atlantic Trader was brought to New Zealand to compete for Cook Strait freight in June 2001.
But on the delivery voyage from Miami to Wellington, she started taking on water and was diverted to Auckland. There, Maritime New Zealand inspectors found the structural condition of the 32-year-old ship was poor and refused to allow her to sail. She has been berthed at the Freeman's Bay wharf of Titan Marine Engineering ever since.
New owners Ken Fell and William Mulholland say improving scrap-metal prices due to heavy demand for steel from China and India now make it worthwhile to try to recover the ship's 2000 tonnes of steel.
A team of five, using the latest plasma cutting gear, would take four months to break the 10mm-thick hull into 2m square pieces for sale.
The ship's two engines, each weighing 15 tonnes, would be hauled out by crane once the deck is removed. "It's of a daunting size but it's just a matter of dissecting it," said Mr Fell. He said the ship would be cut off right down to water level and then brought up the slipway for further dissecting,
When the sand-blasting contractor first saw the rusting vessel, he thought it a prospect for a year's work. "But I was told it was way beyond sandblasting."
Auckland deputy harbourmaster Jim Dilley said the risk of pollution had been dealt with early on in the piece when the harbourmaster ordered all fuel and lubricants to be removed from the ship's bunkers and engines.
