Half a year without being able to salvage the sunken Hong Anh 69 ship in Nghe An
(Baonghean.vn) - While the salvage is at a standstill, the ship owner and the contractor hired to salvage are said to be in conflict.
On April 6, Nghe An Maritime Port Authority said that the unit is still closely monitoring the salvage of the Hong Anh 69 ship that sank in Cua Lo waters nearly half a year ago. However, the salvage work is facing many difficulties, the ship is now deeply embedded in the seabed.
Hong Anh 69 has a capacity of 4,700 tons and belongs to Hong Gia Trading and Service Joint Stock Company (Cam Pha, Quang Ninh). At noon on October 30, 2017, the ship suddenly sank when it was only about 3 nautical miles from Cua Lo port. At that time, the ship was carrying coal from Quang Ninh to Cua Lo, with 12 crew members on board. After nearly 2 hours of sinking, all crew members were rescued.
The ship owner then signed a contract with a company based in Nghe An to conduct the salvage. According to Mr. Vuong Binh Minh - Director of Nghe An Maritime Port Authority, the salvage company has long had workers suck sand and mud out of the cargo hold, put them on a barge to transport them away, and then continue to blow air into the hold to make the ship float. After that, they will have divers thread cables under the ship and use a crane to gradually lift it up.
However, because the ship was stuck so deep, even though more than 600 tons of sand were sucked out, it still did not budge. Since then, the ship has been sinking deeper and deeper to the bottom of the sea.
A source said the salvage contract was worth about 6 billion VND. While the salvage encountered difficulties and was delayed for a long time, there was a conflict between the ship owner and the company hired to salvage the ship.
“The signed contract had a clause requiring the ship owner to advance the money to the salvage company. However, they did not do so, causing difficulties for the company in mobilizing equipment and human resources,” said the source.
Meanwhile, the ship owner claimed that the salvage company also did not comply with the terms of the contract. Accordingly, the contract clearly stated that the company had to complete the salvage within 20 days, but many months have passed and there has been no change.
Recently, the ship owner issued a document stating that "by the end of March, if this company still cannot salvage the ship, the contract will be canceled." Faced with this situation, the authorities had to organize a mediation between the two units.
Also in this sea area, the VTB 26 ship sank in mid-July 2017 after nearly 9 months of being unable to salvage it. Now it has to be cut into pieces and sold as scrap metal because the salvage costs have been pushed up too high. In a recent meeting, comrade Dinh Viet Hong - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested that the salvage of these two ships must be completed before April 25.