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Drop in scrap market delays departure of Carissa remains
By Susan Chambers, Staff Writer
Saturday, December 20, 2008 | No comments posted.
The New Carissa isn’t gone yet.
All but a few hundred tons of the infamous shipwreck still sits piled at the Sause Bros. yard in Empire, where the scrap was offloaded from a floating barge.
Titan Salvage spent the summer cutting up the rusting hulk of the New Carissa on the North Spit, using two jack-up barges and about 20 men from all over the world.
Once it was at the Sause Bros. yard, workers from Eugene-based Pacific Recycling Inc. continued the dissection. The 170-ton hunk of engine? Sliced. The 65-ton steering box? Chopped.
The ideal size for shipping each piece is about 2 feet by 4 feet, Pacific Recycling General Manager Andrew Anthony said.
“It’s prepared and ready to go to market,” Anthony said. “We just haven’t taken it to market.”
Part of the problem is price.
“The scrap market bottomed out,” said Phil Reed, Titan’s salvage and engineering general manager. “Scrap isn’t worth anything.”
What was worth $325 a ton a few months ago dropped to $160 a ton and lower. It required renegotiating the price Pacific would pay Titan, Reed said.
Now it’s done.
“We should have it all gone sometime in January,” Anthony said.
While the salvaged metal still hangs around, Titan’s workers are gone to jobs in other parts of the world.
The Karlissa A and B jack-up barges, which were used on the New Carissa demolition, have been moved from the North Spit to Sause Bros.’ Southern Oregon Marine shipyard for refitting and maintenance. They will leave Tuesday for Ensenada, Mexico, to aid in construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal.
Four Titan crewmen will fly to Ensenada in January to get the barges in place. Three of those men worked on the New Carissa, Reed said.
Other Titan crews are working in Gibraltar, in the Mediterranean. The crew working on the New Flame, a ship that sank near Gibraltar in August 2007, just left that project for the winter.
Another crew is working on the Fedra, a ship that broke in two on the cliffs of Gibraltar’s Europa Point during an October storm. Those workers recently removed the 550-ton superstructure from the stern and are waiting to refloat the bow and move it to a recycling site.
Some of the crew left, but a few salvors, including some who worked on the New Carissa, may remain in Gibraltar over the holidays, Reed said.
“The stern section looks like the New Carissa did,” he said.
All but a few hundred tons of the infamous shipwreck still sits piled at the Sause Bros. yard in Empire, where the scrap was offloaded from a floating barge.
Titan Salvage spent the summer cutting up the rusting hulk of the New Carissa on the North Spit, using two jack-up barges and about 20 men from all over the world.
Once it was at the Sause Bros. yard, workers from Eugene-based Pacific Recycling Inc. continued the dissection. The 170-ton hunk of engine? Sliced. The 65-ton steering box? Chopped.
The ideal size for shipping each piece is about 2 feet by 4 feet, Pacific Recycling General Manager Andrew Anthony said.
“It’s prepared and ready to go to market,” Anthony said. “We just haven’t taken it to market.”
Part of the problem is price.
“The scrap market bottomed out,” said Phil Reed, Titan’s salvage and engineering general manager. “Scrap isn’t worth anything.”
What was worth $325 a ton a few months ago dropped to $160 a ton and lower. It required renegotiating the price Pacific would pay Titan, Reed said.
Now it’s done.
“We should have it all gone sometime in January,” Anthony said.
While the salvaged metal still hangs around, Titan’s workers are gone to jobs in other parts of the world.
The Karlissa A and B jack-up barges, which were used on the New Carissa demolition, have been moved from the North Spit to Sause Bros.’ Southern Oregon Marine shipyard for refitting and maintenance. They will leave Tuesday for Ensenada, Mexico, to aid in construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal.
Four Titan crewmen will fly to Ensenada in January to get the barges in place. Three of those men worked on the New Carissa, Reed said.
Other Titan crews are working in Gibraltar, in the Mediterranean. The crew working on the New Flame, a ship that sank near Gibraltar in August 2007, just left that project for the winter.
Another crew is working on the Fedra, a ship that broke in two on the cliffs of Gibraltar’s Europa Point during an October storm. Those workers recently removed the 550-ton superstructure from the stern and are waiting to refloat the bow and move it to a recycling site.
Some of the crew left, but a few salvors, including some who worked on the New Carissa, may remain in Gibraltar over the holidays, Reed said.
“The stern section looks like the New Carissa did,” he said.
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