Swan Hunter questions the wisdom of buying Intrepid (From The Northern Echo)

Swan Hunter questions the wisdom of buying Intrepid

11:02am Wednesday 26th July 2006 in North-East Business News

TYNESIDE shipyard Swan Hunter - the only yard in the UK with a ship-breaking licence - yesterday cast doubt over whether it will buy HMS Intrepid from the MoD.

Swans wants to create jobs by recycling Intrepid, the next ship due to be scrapped by the Government.

However, the yard is questioning whether any money can be made from the contract.

Yesterday, Swans project manager John Mitchell said: "If there is a lot of material in a ship, then getting the money for the scrap pays for the work in breaking it up.

"However, there are very few non-ferrous metals in the HMS Intrepid and a lot of asbestos. My personal view is that I don't think many people will want to pay the MoD for this ship.

"We are now going through the exercise of what we think the costs will be versus the income we will get from selling the materials."

Able UK Ltd has applied for permission to decommission ships at its Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre facility.

The Hartlepool company wants to scrap a fleet of so-called "ghost ships" on behalf of the US Government but was yesterday unavailable to comment on the latest tender.