Though spectacular salvage and wreck removal projects continue to hit the headlines, the ocean salvage industry continues to face pressures that has seen some major players leave the market in recent years. We asked Smit Salvage Managing Director Richard Janssen, who is president of the International Salvage Union, to give us some insights into the state of industry. Marine Log (ML): The two salvage cases that have been most in the headlines in the past year have been wreck removal cases-the Wakashio in Mauritius and the Golden Ray in the U.S. What percentage of the salvage industry's business has wreck removal accounted for in recent years? And how much has been accounted for by emergency response? Richard Janssen (RJ): The International Salvage Union's (ISU) statistics show that the trend has been for wreck removal income to increase as a proportion of the overall income for ISU members. It now accounts for approximately 50% of income. In 2019 (latest figures), for example, 101 wreck operations were reported with a gross income of US$ 284 million-59% of total income, which was US$ 482million. It means that other sources of income-largely emergency response work-produced US$ 198 million.
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