Hunting down the Onyx (4)

Prayati Shipping PVT, based in Bombay, owner of the car ferry Onyx, confirms its position as a wrecking ship owner. Asian ship-breaking yards appear to be the only destination of the vessels of its “fleet”.

Identified in the summer of 2009 for having sold the old tanker President to a demolition yard in Bangladesh, only a couple of months after having bought it, Prayati Shipping PVT had also become at the same time the owner of the Rose S, a bulk carrier built in 1976 (see “Hunting down the Onyx, February 4, 2010). Today, the owner just got rid of the Onyx which was detained in ports across the world, and which has not sailed since her purchase: the Rose S has just been beached for demolition in Alang.

In light of her history, her difficulties in sailing, and the niche in which her owner operates, the Onyx has a clearly mapped out future. Departed from Vaasa (Finland), and after a call in Brest (France), she is currently in Lisbon (Portugal), awaiting a new weather window, with an official destination of Piraeus (Greece), via Limassol (Cyprus). The European Union has a clear responsibility to manage this waste. Robin des Bois asks authorities at all European ports to immobilise this ship and demolish it in a nearby European scrap yard.

See:
February 24th 2010, Hunting down the Onyx (3) & the Margaret Hill