While the cruise industry is stagnant due to COVID-19, the junk parks that manage passenger ships have turned the pandemic into a commercial opportunity.
In Turkey, up to five cruise ship shipments have been headed to the junkyard to be dismantled and sold to eliminate the pandemic, Kamil Onal, chairman of a shipment recycling manufacturers agreement told Reuters.
Once adorned by the seas, these cruisers are being demolished in an attempt to recover some of what is lost while the cruise industry remains idle by the coronavirus crisis.
Even now, with a non-navigation order in position from the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U. S. , the cruise industry has still restored its normal sailing schedule. Carnival has cancelled some crosses until 2021 and Norwegian Cruise Line has suspended some of its shipping operations. until March 2021.
READ: COVID-19 Cruise – What to Expect on Your Next Cruise
But in the junk parks of western Turkey, the business is booming, as several ships have arrived in the city of Aliaga to mark their last resting position, while the walls, windows, floors and steel railings are dismantled and sold as steel scrap, Reuters reported. come to buy recoverable “useful materials. “
Three more ships are expected to arrive early in the scrap backyard where they will be dismantled and sold as scrap metal. Cruise ships that have already arrived in Turkey arrived here from Britain, Italy and the United States.
«. . . After the pandemic, cruisers replaced the course for Aliaga in a very significant way,” Onal said. “There has been an expansion in the sector as a result of the crisis. When the ships can locate work, they went to dismantling. “
It takes up to another 2500 people six months to dismantle a full cruise, Onal told the media. The case aims to increase its volume of dismantled metal to 1. 1 million tonnes by the end of 2020, up from 700,000 tonnes in January.
A cruise ship is represented. Photo: AFP / Miguel MEDINA