Maritime Monster All Jobs Moored Here
The U.S. Treasury has authorized a demolition sale for four sanctioned vessels linked to the Shamkhani shipping network, a large-scale smuggling organization that has moved millions of barrels of Iranian oil to market. The anonymous owners of these four ships will receive millions of dollars in payment for the scrap value, cash buyer GMS confirmed to the Wall Street Journal, under special approval from the Trump administration.
According to the Treasury, the ships belonged to the network of Iranian “shadow fleet” industry leader Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani, son of senior Iranian advisor Ali Shamkhani, who was killed in an airstrike in February. The administration has sanctioned more than 50 of the Shamkhani network’s ships in multiple well-publicized actions, including the four vessels now authorized for sale, identified by the WSJ as the Yogi, Timon, Rantanplan and Bigli.
If shadow fleet shipowners want to exit sanctioned trades, there are several non-revenue-generating options, like abandoning the vessel and crew – a practice which is occurring at record-high rates. But for a revenue-generating exit that recoups some of the capex cost of the ship, a demolition sale is often the owner’s only option for vessels in the shadow fleet, which skews heavily towards older tonnage. Sanctioned ships are sold for scrapping at discount rates, according to Wirana, and are therefore a desirable source of steel for shipbreakers.
FULL ARTICLE AVAILABLE HERE: maritime-executive.com
