Salvage Industry Statistics Indicate Market Stabilization
The ISU has published its annual statistics for 2024, and the headline 2024 numbers show great consistency with the 2023 statistics, continuing with the modest recovery from the low point of 2022.
Gross revenue for ISU members was $406 million, up from $398 million in 2023. The number of services provided reached 191, up from 184 the previous year.
Lloyd’s Open Form (LOF) was used in 29 cases (2023: 16). LOF revenue was $118 million (2023: $29 million). The previous year had been the lowest level of LOF contracts for ISU members since the ISU started collecting statistics some 30 years ago.
Emergency response services generated $181 million split between LOF $118 million and other contracts $63 million. The average revenue from each non-LOF contract was $1.2 million.
SCOPIC revenue at $20 million in 2024 was up from $9 million previously.
Wreck removal income was $205 million from 40 services (2023: $193 million from 30 services).
Wreck removal income is important for members, says the ISU, and these numbers maintain the division of the industry’s income at the typical levels of approximately 50:50 between emergency response and wreck removal income.
ISU President, John Witte, commented: “These numbers at least show that the industry has stabilised compared with the low point two years ago but they are still well below the higher numbers from a decade ago. Sustaining the salvage industry so that professional contractors are available to respond around the world remains a focus both for ISU but also for the insurance and shipowning communities.”
During 2024, a new LOF was published for use along with its Fast Track Documents Only (FTDO) arbitration procedure. “As always, ISU continues to promote use of LOF and, while we are realistic about the number of times the contract will be used each year, we hope for an upturn and so we shall follow developments with the new LOF closely, including the operation of the FTDO,” says Witte.
The increased number of LOFs is notable, says the ISU, but it is not possible to attribute this to a specific cause given that the statistics are for the year when income is received, not when the services were provided. ISU believes that income based on awards under Article 13 of the Salvage Convention should be the cornerstone of funding the industry so the increase is welcome.
“In major operations, we saw ISU members respond effectively to the Baltimore bridge disaster – removing the collapsed bridge debris in difficult conditions and refloating the container ship Dali. It was a case which demonstrated in practice the ISU’s key messages about the value of professional salvors in reducing loss, saving property and keeping ports open,” says Witte.
“In other operational matters, fires on container ships and battery fires in car carries and on RoRos are a continuing and significant concern. ISU members are often the only agency available to deal with such incidents and have a proud track record in this specialised field. And dealing with casualties that are powered by new types of fuel - LNG, hydrogen and ammonia - will be an increasing focus for the industry.”
The ISU statistics are collected from all ISU members by a professional third party, which aggregates and analyses them. They are the only published measure of the state of the industry but do not include information from non-ISU members. All numbers are gross income from which all the contractors’ costs must be paid.