Last voyage - Retired ‘supercarrier’ on its way to Brownsville ship recycler

USS Forrestal

The 1,063-foot-long aircraft carrier USS Forrestal was scheduled to arrive early this morning at the jetties marking the entrance to the Port of Brownsville ship channel.

The historic vessel’s final destination is All Star Metals’ ship-recycling facility, where it will be dismantled and sold for scrap.

The first of the Navy’s “supercarriers,” the Forrestal was launched in 1954 from Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co. in Virginia and commissioned in 1955. Officially, the vessel is no longer named “USS Forrestal” since being decommissioned and struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1993.

Last October, the Naval Sea Systems Command announced that All Star Metals was awarded the Navy contract to dismantle the Forrestal, named for James Forrestal, secretary of defense during the Truman administration.

The vessel was the lead ship of the Forrestal-class of carriers, which also included the USS Independence, the USS Ranger and the USS Saratoga, all of which have been decommissioned and designated for dismantling.

The Forrestal departed the Navy’s inactive vessel facility at Philadelphia early on the morning of Feb. 4, under tow by the vessel Lauren Foss, which All Star Metals contracted to do the job.

At least a few veterans who served on the Forrestal were expected to gather to watch its arrival this morning. In recognition of the 3,500 men and women who served aboard the ship, All Star Metals is planning a small, invitation-only event on Feb. 28 for local officials, dignitaries and a few others, including representatives from the USS Forrestal Association.

On March 1, All Star Metals will host an open visitation at its facility from 9 a.m. to noon for community members, veterans and members of the USS Forrestal Association. The vessel itself will be off limits due to Navy restrictions (the vessel remains Navy property until dismantling is complete).

In conjunction with the March 1 visitation, the USS Forrestal Association will hold an off-site event beginning at 1 p.m. For details, visit www.uss-forrestal.com.

The Navy paid a symbolic value of $0.01 to All Star Metals to have the mothballed carrier towed and scrapped. The ship recycler assumes all the risks and costs of towing the vessel, with the aim of recovering the costs and making a profit through sale of the scrap.

On Feb. 5, Sen. John McCain, probably the Forrestal’s most famous veteran, released a statement in which he recalled a catastrophic fire that took place aboard the vessel during the Vietnam War on July 29, 1967. The incident nearly cost the future senator and presidential candidate his life.

The Forrestal had been launching air strikes against the North Vietnamese from the Gulf of Tonkin when a Zuni rocket accidentally fired from an F-4 Phantom, striking McCain’s A-4 Skyhawk and rupturing the plane’s fuel tank.

The resulting fire and explosions killed 134 of his shipmates, injured 161 more, destroyed more than 20 aircraft and badly damaged the carrier to the tune of $72 million. The Forrestal was in dry dock at Norfolk Naval Shipyard for several months while repairs were carried out.

McCain wrote that the Forrestal, which featured the first steam catapult, angled flight deck and optical landing systems, “represented American ingenuity and shipbuilding excellence.”

He noted that during its 38 years of service the Forrestal and its attached air wings took part in missions all over the globe, including “dozens of NATO operations, overseas deployments, patrol missions and strategic port visits around the Atlantic and Sixth Fleets.”

“I will always remember and honor my brave comrades who died in the Forrestal fire,” McCain wrote. “Although the ship is being towed to Brownsville, Texas, to be physically dismembered, her legacy, the bonds forged and memories created among shipmates will live forever. I bid her a final ‘fair winds and following seas.’”

Source: Brownsville herald. 17 February 2014

http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_465ef678-9855-11e3-8b14-001a4bcf6878.html

GMS weekly report on Indian ship breaking industry for WEEK 07 of 2014:

The slew of container vessels now in the market has already begun to put a downward pressure on prices in India. With Bangladesh steel prices having decreased significantly during the week (by as much as USD 10 per LT LDT), the onus will clearly shift to Indian buyers to pick up the slack and import the majority of those vessels already sold to cash buyers.

The position that both, owners and (increasingly concerned) cash buyers with high priced unsold inventory, do not want to be in, is where they are chasing down the market as demand (and subsequently prices) cool off.

Even though the strong performance of the Indian Rupee (trading in and around a comfortable INR 61 to INR 62 to the US Dollar) and a steel price that is fluctuating daily (by about INR 100 to INR 200), the fundamentals for a decent resale currently remain in place.

What is of major concern to those close to the Indian market is an oversupply of similar (many are sister ships) panamax sized container vessels and a dwindling availability of open buyers with adequate LC facilities, plot space, and a demand to buy.

Of the vessels concluded for the week, the eye catcher, for an astonishing USD 495 per LT LDT (less commissions), was the Danaos controlled MARATHONAS (23,326 LDT) of superior Danish build, an excess 70 Tonnes bronze propeller and approximately 250 T bunkers upon arrival. It is understood one specific yard had a demand for exactly this type of unit, hence, the extremely aggressive price on show.

Source: steel guru. 18 February 2014

http://www.steelguru.com/indian_news/GMS_weekly_report_on_Indian_ship_breaking_industry_for_WEEK_07/332988.html

Turning ship breaking into a safe and green industry:

Ship breaking industry offers the promise of employing thousands of hitherto jobless workers in Bangladesh. The sector supports the country's steel, shipbuilding and other heavy and light engineering industries.

Some of the recycled materials are exported, and the rest is sold and reused within the country. A lot of the materials are of high value to the local economy. In particular, recycling of steel for producing iron rods for construction, plates for new ships or for many other purposes is a lucrative business.

According to a FE report published late last week, Bangladesh emerged as the third largest ship breaking nation in the world in 2013; in 2012, its ranking was the second.

However, problems regarding safety, health and environmental issues have created a negative image for the industry, despite its positive contribution to job creation in a country with a high rate of disguised and open unemployment. Only the other day, three workers were seriously burnt when fire broke out in a scrap vessel in Sitakunda in Chittagong.

Previously, ship breaking was done in industrial nations, but because of its hazardous nature of operations, it has been shifted to South Asian countries where safety and environmental regulations are more relaxed. About 90 per cent of ship breaking in the world is done in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and China.

The ship breaking industry has, however, great potential in Bangladesh, having one of the longest coastlines. But then there must be adequate safeguards for workers' safety and environmental hazards associated with it.

The International Maritime Organisation has been trying to implement guidelines, regulations and conventions for qualitative improvement of ship-breaking industry around the globe since 2003.

The 'Hong Kong International Convention for Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships' is one of them. The Hong Kong Convention (HKC) was adopted in May 2009 and will come into force upon fulfilment of some requirements. It is applicable to all merchant ships greater than 500 gross tonnage as well as to all ship recycling facilities.

The European Commission, too, is going to enforce the 'European Regulation on Ship Recycling'. One of the key issues of both regulations, which directly affect the ship recycling industry, is the authorisation of ship-recycling facilities. Many ship recycling yards which are not up to the mark, may be eliminated because of restricted authorisation of ship recycling facilities.

Source: steel guru. 11 February 2014

http://www.steelguru.com/international_news/Turning_ship_breaking_into_a_safe_and_green_industry/332494.html

Indian shipbreaking bounces back as rupee strengthens:

In the end, it was simply a matter of holding one’s nerve, refusing to commit locally and weathering the storm caused by the sagging value of the Indian rupee against the US dollar and the dipping prices of steel scrap.

As the Indian currency regained the ground lost in the second fortnight of January, to trade again in the respectable range of INR61 against the dollar, after briefly touching INR63, end buyers of scrap ships rushed back to the table seeking to acquire any available vessels on offer.

After a remarkably bullish start to the year, demand had tailed off as end buyers chose to wait and watch market developments before committing on new tonnage. Following the rupee’s recovery, demand surged again for all types of units in both Alang and Mumbai, with local sentiment pushing prices to some previously unthinkable levels.

Clean tankers attracted bids of $465 per ldt from India, with marginally lower levels seen from Bangladesh and Pakistan, while general cargo vessels were being quoted at $430 per ldt in India, $425 per ldt in Bangladesh and $415 per ldt in Pakistan.

“There are plenty of open buyers with yard capacity in the sub-continent barely half-full,” remarked Dubai-based cash buyers GMS. “Almost all types of vessel are in demand with a particular preference, perhaps, for mid-sized 7,000-14,000 ldt vessels, favoured due to the lower overall cutting time, in light of the constant volatility being seen in all markets.”

Nevertheless, no market sales were reported. Despite cash buyers holding onto a number of unsold units (particularly panamax sized container vessels committed for huge prices in earlier weeks), there has not been the substantial supply of tonnage that many had expected from the market in January.

With 16 vessels at anchorage in Chittagong, it has been a busy tide of deliveries and beachings in Bangladesh in the first week of February. Steel prices actually gained ground by as much as $10 per ldt, wiping out the previous week’s losses in the process.

There was little activity from China, whose bids were approximately $100 per ldt lower than those from India. The onset of the Chinese New Year holidays from 30 January meant that a vast number of Chinese workers would depart for their hometowns from the large cities and shipyards. 

It is now clear that the Chinese move, in the dying weeks of 2012, to provide subsidies – to the tune of a premium of RMB750 ($124) per gt, to be provided to Chinese flagged vessels that are recycled at domestic yards in North and South China – is unlikely to have any major impact on junk ship yards in India.

Bangladesh and Pakistan, however, could witness an impact as fewer old Chinese ships are expected to make their final voyage to their yards. There is still insufficient supply to satisfy the voracious demand, but if freight rates continue to slide, all this could change.

Source: sea trade global. 11 February 2014

http://www.seatrade-global.com/news/asia/indian-shipbreaking-market-bounces-back-as-rupee-strengthens.html

GMS weekly report on Bangladesh ship breaking industry for WEEK 06 of 2014:

As Bangladesh tries its best to keep pace with a rampant Indian market, the competition intensified this week, particularly on geographically positioned tonnage with cash buyers assessing prices and merits in each location accordingly.

With many of the bigger buyers booked on the recent slew of capesize bulkers and larger container vessels concluded into Chittagong, enquiries began to emerge on smaller mid range vessels from 7-10,000 LDT.

With China emerging from holidays next week, the supply side of vessels stationed in the Far East is expected to pick up again to satisfy the demand of the remaining hot buyers.

Source: steel guru. 11 February 2014

http://www.steelguru.com/international_news/GMS_weekly_report_on_Bangladesh_ship_breaking_industry_for_WEEK_06/332496.html