Have you ever wondered what happens to cruise ship shipments when they’re out of service?Find out what’s going on with our cruise ship graveyard advisor.
Modern cruise ships are true marvels of engineering. From their immense scale and rugged propulsion systems to their sumptuous interiors and captivating amenities, these magnificent ships capture the mind like no other in the transportation industry.
While they are attractive, many other people wonder what happens to them when they are no longer supported for the service. Behind the scenes of the cruise industry is an equally desirable world of cruise ship disposal and recycling. Like cars and airplanes, even cruise ship shipments end up being scrapped.
Today we’re going to delve into the global unknown of the cruise shipping graveyard. We’ll find out where those once-glorious shipments end up and the disposal and recycling procedure used to destroy those huge shipments. We’ll also answer questions about the lifespan of a typical cruise ship and whether its disposal has environmental implications.
So, if you’re in a position to uncover the secrets of the cruise shipping graveyard, let’s get started!
Before we explore the concept of cruise shipping graveyard, it’s worth explaining how long a cruise ship lasts and why all shipments want to go out of service at some point.
Typically, a giant cruise ship can remain in service for about 30 years; However, the exact lifespan will depend on the wishes of the cruise line operating the ship. Some luxury cruise lines will dismantle their ships and sell or scrap them.
Other cruise lines will extend the life of their ships by refurbishing them. These can range from indisputable updates to décor and interior furnishings to broader technological improvements. If a cruise ship is properly maintained and upgraded, it may be in service for 40 years.
When a decision is made to take a cruise ship out of service, it must undergo a meticulous decommissioning process. This process involves more than simply powering down the engines and locking the doors.
For starters, the cruise ship’s huge fuel tanks will need to be completely emptied. This is for environmental purposes, as it helps decrease the threat of fuel spills in the recovery process.
Decommissioned cruise ships will also be required to go through a detailed environmental assessment by an impartial party. The entire ship is tested with this procedure to ensure that all hazardous materials are accounted for. Once the fuel tanks are safely emptied, the fuel lines tire to make sure no environmentally hazardous fabrics remain.
Related: A cruise ship sent out of the water: what does it look like?
Other potentially hazardous materials, such as asbestos, mercury, hydrocarbons, and various corrosive heavy metals, are accounted for during the assessment. These will need to be removed and disposed of in accordance with all of the relevant environmental regulations.
The interior can be completely disassembled once the out-of-service cruise shipment has been evaluated for environmental hazards and fuel debris and other engine fluids have been safely removed.
During this process, all interior furniture and fixtures are removed. In some cases, it would possibly be auctioned off so that it could be reused or discarded so that the fabrics could be reused.
Certain in-house items, such as artwork, kitchen appliances, high-end furniture, and even chandeliers, can lead to significant profits for the cruise line at auction. This helps cover some expenses similar to sending the shipment to be disposed of in a cruise ship graveyard.
This procedure is important for financial purposes and helps to reduce the environmental impact of disposing of such a large vessel.
Finally, the decommissioned cruise ship is demolished and dismantled in a scrap metal backyard specializing in large-scale ship disposal. Not only are the engines and other parts removed, but the metal hull of the ship is also dismantled so that the metal can be melted down and reused. .
Perhaps it won’t surprise you to learn that large-scale cruise ships are built with large amounts of high-quality, non-corrosive steel. When properly recycled, this steel and electrical wiring can be worth a dollar amount, especially if it rarely corrodes too much. This is what makes the cruise ship dismantling industry profitable.
Even the thousands of windows on a cruise ship can be discarded and recycled just like any other type of glass.
Given the immense length of a cruise shipment, the recovery and dismantling procedure takes place in a traditional junkyard. That’s where shipping graveyards come in.
These specialized junkyards are designed to take care of giant vessels. They have large harbors where dismantled ships can be towed. From there, crews can work dismantling ships and recovering materials and parts for recycling.
In many cases, luxury cruise ships are scrapped and scrapped along with larger ships, such as cargo ships, oil tankers, and research vessels.
The most notable cruise ship cemeteries are in poorer countries where hard work is cheap. These come with the following:
Alang Ship Breaking Yard is considered to be the world’s largest ship breaking yard for dismantled ships. The facility is home to 183 giant ship scrapping yards and features docks where retired ships can be towed for the early stages of demolition.
The Alang Ship Breaking Yard handles cruise ships and has dismantled everything from oil tankers to aircraft carriers.
The Aliağa ship recycling shipyard on the Turkish coast has gained popularity abroad for its more environmentally friendly technique for recycling cruise ships and other types of ships.
Thousands of employees paint harmoniously to recycle metal and other valuable fabrics from decommissioned ships. This recycling facility has also gained prominence due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with lockdown measures hitting the cruise industry particularly hard. Many cruise lines have sold cruise ships to Aliağa for recycling and demolition.
This large backyard of naval scrap handles about one-fifth of the world’s decommissioned ships, making it a large operation. In fact, the Chittagong factory employs more than 200,000 people at any given time.
Although it takes care of all the bureaucracy of shipment scrapping, the main specialization of the facility is the recovery of metals. While it was once considered a major tourist attraction in Bangladesh, it had to close access to the general public for safety reasons. Unfortunately, Chittagong’s shipbreaking backyard is under foreign scrutiny due to its poor protection record, with reports claiming that around one employee dies every week.
The world’s third largest ship scrapping yard is located along the coast of the Arabian Sea in southern Pakistan. At any given time, the Gadani Ship Breaking Yard can handle 125 full-sized ships, including full-size cruise ships.
Although the facility has reduced its length and staff in recent years, it still receives many cruises a year, especially those from the Mediterranean Sea.
You may be wondering how the naval graveyard industry works financially. While it may be assumed that cruise lines would have to shell out huge sums of money to get rid of those giant objects, it turns out that wrecking cruise ships is profitable. especially in countries with relatively low average hourly incomes.
Recycling scrap metal on such a scale can be very lucrative. In particular, the metal that can be recovered from the outer hull of a cruise ship can be a valuable commodity in a country with few resources.
For example, shipyards bid on decommissioned cruise ships and buy them from cruise lines. Although cruise lines have to pay certain environmental taxes when they retire a ship from service, much of that money can be recouped when it is sold.
Cruise ship graveyards can be profitable and sustainable enterprises and provide much-needed job opportunities in countries and regions with low employment rates.
While they can be detrimental to local economies, shipyards can also be incredibly harmful workplaces, which is why there has recently been a crackdown on office protection criteria. Some countries have also mandated stricter environmental criteria for the demolition industry, making it more costly. to put a large-scale scrap yard into operation.
While seeing the skeletons of once-glamorous cruise ships might appeal to some adventurers, most cruise ship graveyards are off-limits to the general public. This is simply due to protective considerations and certain regulations that require Americans to go through a strict education before entering any of those types of facilities.
While some services were once open to the public, such as the Chittagong backyard in Bangladesh, most have now closed. To keep locals and tourists curious, some of these cruise ship cemeteries host guided tours and photo events, but they are regularly reserved for days when the junkyard is idle.
Some of those cemeteries have even been featured in major Hollywood movies, such as Avengers: Age of Ultron, which contained a scene shown in a South African cemetery.
Yes, most cruise ships are now subject to environmental standards, including waste disposal. While scrapyards were much less environmentally friendly in the past, most countries now have recycling projects so that even lower value fabrics are properly recycled.
International regulators are also beginning to introduce regulations related to the sustainability of the shipbreaking industry.
Given that ship scrap yards purchase decommissioned cruise ships from cruise lines, you might wonder what they are actually worth.
In general, the price of a cruise ship will depend mainly on its weight in tonnage, as well as the quality and condition of the metal from which it was built. A well-built, medium-sized cruise ship can weigh anywhere from 60,000 to 120,000 tons.
Most of this weight would be metal. Assuming the metal wasn’t too corroded and the ship had been used recently, the price of its scrap could be around $2 million. Naturally, larger boats can cost even more.
Instead of setting an express price for shipping, most cruise lines auction off their decommissioned and decommissioned vessels. Allowing other shipping cemeteries to bid on the shipment makes the final value difficult to predict. It should also be noted that the price of scrap steel can vary over time. So, in many ways, the global market dictates the cost of an out-of-service cruise shipment.
For most, a typical cruise ship will be in service for 25 to 30 years. Unsurprisingly, proper maintenance and upgrades of a cruise ship can be used for longer.
For larger, more modern, and well-maintained vessels, the lifespan can be up to 40 years. It’s important to note that older boats need to go through more regular safety inspections to ensure they don’t run the risk of breaking down during use. Passengers.
While the world of cruise ship graveyards can be fascinating, relatively few people understand how it works. Many assume unserviceable cruise ships remain still and simply erode, but they are quickly broken down and recycled.
Even after ferrying enthusiastic passengers to the world’s most exciting waters, those massive ships are still incredibly valuable.
Also read: Where do cruise ships go to die?The decommissioning process
In many ways, the stripping and recycling of a cruise ship is the final phase of its life span. From being built by thousands of skilled workers and carrying for up to 40 years to eventually being broken down and scrapped, the lifecycle of a cruise ship is truly fascinating.
The fact that a cruise giant is being repurposed and recycled after all those years of service is a testament to the fashion cruise industry’s commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility.