Two cruiseships sold by Carnival Corp for further trading at the height of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic have been resold for recycling by the cruise lines that initially thought they were getting bargain buys.

The sales of the 70,500-gt cruiseship Century Harmony (built 1994) and the 56,800-gt Celestyal Experience (built 1993) highlight the pessimistic long-term outlook in the cruise sector despite it creaking back into life this year.

The prolonged lay-up of many cruiseships has made even those that were picked up by second-tier operators for rock-bottom prices an unattractive proposition as maintenance costs continue to accrue while any potential return to service drags on into 2022.

Century Harmony Cruise, a start-up backed by Chinese investors that bought the Century Harmony as Carnival Fascination from Carnival Cruise Line in September 2020, is throwing in the towel without having carried a single paying passenger.

Cruise industry sources said said Century Harmony tied up a deal to sell the ship, one of four Fantasy-class ships let go by Carnival in 2020, for recycling at Alang.

The other three were sold by Carnival for recycling in Turkey.

Requests for confirmation sent to Century Harmony via its Singapore-based third-party ship manager were not immediately answered.

When Century Harmony first bought the ship — following reports that it was to be recycled in Turkey — there were widespread suggestions that it would be used as a floating resort hotel in Asia.

While the company never commented on its plans for the vessel, market sources following its development later said there were signs that the ship would be used to launch a cruise operation out of China.

Although Century Harmony repositioned the ship to China, where it reportedly underwent dry-docking and refurbishment, investors were said to have become disillusioned by the prolonged duration of the pandemic, with few signs of international borders in Asia opening up to allow for the revival of mass tourism.

A demolition sale could potentially net the company a small profit as it was believed to have paid close to the ship’s scrap value when it was acquired in September 2020.

VesselsValue data indicates that the ship’s scrap value would have been in the region of $10m at the time it was acquired, but it would be worth $20m as scrap today.

Recycling Experience

When Celestyal Cruises bought the Celestyal Experience as Costa neoRomantica from Carnival’s Costa brand in July 2020, the ship was touted as heralding a new era of growth for the Piraeus-based cruise line.

However, as the pandemic dragged on into this year, Celestyal only reactivated its two smaller ships for a brief summer season while the Celestyal Experience was left tied up to the dock.

The company, which is owned by the Louis Group of Cyprus, announced the sale of the ship in early September.

Louis Group said in an announcement to the Cyprus bourse that the ship was sold to provide enhanced liquidity and zero third-party debt. The sale generated an accounting gain of $3.6m.

IHS Markit data shows that ownership of the Celestyal Experience has been transferred to Beacon & Bay Shipping Services, a cash buyer based in Dubai. It has been renamed Antares Experience.

Sources close to the company told TradeWinds that an onward sale for recycling, possibly in India, was being lined up.

Alang in the lead

India’s ship recycling centre of Alang was late getting into the game when cruise lines began shedding ships in large numbers after the pandemic shutdown.

The wave began when Carnival Corp and Royal Caribbean started unloading ships built late 1980s and early 1990s onto Turkish ship recyclers.

Despite offering substantially lower prices than India, Turkey was the preferred destination for these image-conscious industry giants due to several recyclers there having European Union approvals.

As Alang quickly reached full capacity, other cruise lines that wanted to shed ships quickly to shore up their balance sheets began to opt for India, where many recyclers have Hong Kong Convention certification.

The sale of the Century Harmony and expected sale of the Celestyal Experience bring India’s tally of pandemic casualties to 13 cruiseships, surpassing Turkey with 12 vessels.

Indian recyclers have also acquired a large number of redundant ropaxes and other non-cruise related passenger ships during the same period.

A total of 28 ships totalling 1.13m-gt have been sold for recycling since the pandemic outbreak.