Scrap metal merchants are being offered the opportunity to snap up pieces of what were once supposed to be mighty ships.
These rusty reminders of the 2008 financial crisis that scuppered Vietnam’s attempt to break into the global shipbuilding market — and all but bankrupted its shipping industry — are now destined to be hauled away for recycling.
Vinalines, the country’s mostly state-owned shipping conglomerate, has rather more humble plans for the steel sections of two handymax bulkers and a smaller handysize ordered in the heady days of the shipping and shipbuilding boom.
The 2008 crisis hit hard, leaving the shipowner unable to pay for the vessels that the shipbuilder had no money to complete
The two 47,000-dwt vessels were being built at Ha Long Shipbuilding and the 22,500-dwt bulker at Bach Dang Shipbuilding, yards that were then under the control of state-owned shipbuilding group Vinashin.
2008 crash
The 2008 crisis hit hard, leaving the shipowner unable to pay for the vessels that the shipbuilder had no money to complete.
The blocks and other assorted pieces of steel remained owned by Vinalines, which had put down hefty deposits for their fabrication.
Last December, the shipowner listed the incomplete structures on asset inventories as items awaiting disposal.
Vinalines has decided the only way to recoup any cash is to sell the whole lot for scrap.
TradeWinds understands that other blocks and bits of cancelled ships being built at former Vinashin yards were disposed of years ago, leaving Vinalines' remnants as the final reminders of an episode that most in the Vietnamese shipping industry would prefer to forget.
