Ship deconstruction cost models

Ship deconstruction is a serious problem for the US Navy and MARAD (MARitime ADministration) as they preside over a fleet of retired naval vessels and merchant ships that grows as ship retirements increase faster than the deconstruction of the ships. There are various estimates of the number of ships that need to be scrapped, from 112 in 2000 to 355 in 2020. The cost to dismantle a ship in the US has been reported to average between $3-4 million per ship, and the total disposal cost is estimated at $2 billion over 20 years. The West Virginia Ship Dismantling Team has focused on two major areas: the use of operations research and cost analysis for ship deconstruction and the environmental, health, and safety issues in ship dismantling. The two subgroups first focused on literature reviews and then upon data collection in their respective areas. The cost models developed have been developed from literature data, since detailed cost information has not been available from the ship dismantling contractors.