Costa Concordia to Be Scrapped in Italy – Update

REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

Update: The plan calls for the Costa Concordia to be towed to Genoa where the ship will be dismantled, according to reports. The tow is expected to commence July 20 and will take about 5 days.

Previous plans called for the Costa Concordia to be towed to Italy, where it would then be loaded onto the Dockwise Vanguard, the world’s largest semi-submersible heavy lift ship, which would lift the hulk and carry it to its final destination.

Saipem was previously reported to be among 12 companies that bid for the job of scrapping the cruise liner, including five bids that came from Italian groups planning to dismantle the ship in domestic ports. Other bids came from companies from France, UK, Norway, Turkey and China.

ROME, May 30 (Reuters) – Costa Cruises has chosen a consortium including oil service company Saipem to scrap the hulk of the Costa Concordia cruise liner which capsized off the Tuscany coast in 2012, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

The green light from the Italian government is still missing, the sources added.

Besides Saipem the consortium includes Genoa-based companies Mariotti and San Giorgio, one of the sources said.

Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Corp, and Saipem declined to comment.

The luxury liner hit rocks more than two years ago as it sailed close to the island of Giglio, killing 32 people.

Since then, it has been hauled upright but still rests where it capsized off the coast of the holiday island. (Reporting by Antonella Cinelli and Stephen Jewkes; editing by Agnieszka Flak)

(c) 2014 Thomson Reuters, All Rights Reserved

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