Lomar contracts salvage for Kea Trader wreck

The owner of the Kea Trader wreck in the southern Pacific has awarded Shanghai Salvage Co (SSC) a contract to remove the vessel from a rocky reef near New Caledonia in the South Pacific.

The newbuild Kea Trader struck the Durand Reef in July while sailing from Papeete in French Polynesia, to Noumea in New Caledonia.

This 2,194TEU ship split in two in November.

Following a four-month competitive tender, Lomar Shipping formulated a plan to remove the two sections of the vessel intact from the reef to protect the marine environment.

Ardent Global was in charge of salvaging containers and fuel from Kea Trader and had extracted 26 flat-racks and 652 of the 756 containers originally on board.

Ardent will continue working in a caretaker capacity for the next month until SSC has all its resources on site.