A Chinese company has secured the contract to dispose of the wreck of the container ship Kea Trader which ran onto a reef off New Caledonia last July.
The Kea Trader leaking oil Photo: Supplied
The ship's owner said it had hired Shanghai Salvage Company to remove the wreck which in heavy seas broke up and split into two.
The Kea Trader ran aground in as yet unexplained circumstances on the Durand Reef near Mare on a voyage from Papeete to Noumea in July.
The nearly new Maltese-flagged vessel was emptied of its fuel in subsequent weeks.
Most of its cargo was then offloaded in a lengthy and costly operation in the hope of refloating the nearly 200 metre long ship.
However, this failed and it was then announced that the ship would be scrapped.
