Salvage woes deepen as Kea Trader splits in two

The 2017-built container ship Kea Trader has split in two after severe storms in the Pacific Ocean.

Owner Lomar Shipping said continual wave pounding and the stress of sitting hard aground a flat rock reef had created vertical fractures on the mid-section of the hull, before Kea Trader ruptured.

Two container units fell into the water and 108 containers were still on board.

Two tugs and specialist anti-pollution contractors remain on site to monitor the situation.

Loaded with 756 containers, Kea Trader grounded on the Durand Reef in the south Pacific in July. The Malta-flagged ship had been sailing from French Polynesia to Noumea, New Caledonia.

Ardent Global has been working for four months to unloading the damaged 25,293 dwt ship and trying to refloat it.

Lomar will scrap the ship, which left China’s Guangzhou Wenchong Shipyard in January, once it is removed from the reef.