San Giorgio del Porto Shipyard appears to have had a change of heart on plans to develop a ship recycling facility in Italy specialising in dismantling cruiseships.

The yard group had purchased Costa Cruises' 75,200-gt Costa Victoria (built 1996) in June 2020 to use as a trial vessel in a project to recycle cruiseships in accordance with European Union environmental regulations.

However, the Costa Victoria has been resold to an EU-approved ship recycling facility in Aliaga, Turkey, according to reports in cruise industry media and the Italian press. A tug has been dispatched to tow the vessel there in the next few weeks, according to the reports.

Turkish ship recycling sources said on Monday that they were also aware that the ship was due to arrive in Aliaga in January.

It is unclear why San Giorgio del Porto has decided to back out of the plan to become Europe's first facility capable of recycling large cruiseships.

Senior executives at the company could not be reached for comment.

A European ship recycling source told TradeWinds that it was highly likely that with more Turkish yards obtaining EU approval, it would be difficult for a European yard with a much higher cost base to compete on price for tonnage.

Another cruise industry observer believed that the large cruiseship clear-out in 2020, which saw more than a dozen sold for scrap, would probably lead to a lengthy pause before more cruiseships are sent for recycling.

Lion's share

Turkey has gained the lion’s share of the 2020 cruise scrapping boom as cruise majors opted to recycle vessels at EU-approved yards in Turkey.

India, until recently the most prolific recycler of cruiseship tonnage, was largely left out of the cruise tonnage bonanza, with only three ships beached for recycling since the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Two more ships are scheduled to be beached at Alang in the coming days. The former Cruises & Maritime Voyages-operated, 22,100-gt cruiseship Marco Polo (built 1965) has arrived at the Bhavnagar anchorage and was awaiting a beaching tide.

On Monday, a former Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line cruiseship — the 47,300-gt Grand Celebration (built 1987) — joined the Marco Polo at the anchorage after completing a long voyage from the Bahamas via the Cape of Good Hope.