Oregon assets lure shipbreakers

Oregon assets lure shipbreakers: "Oregon assets lure shipbreakers
Cheaper costs for land and labor to scrap a California fleet are driving business and the government north
Sunday, January 08, 2006
PETER SLEETH

It seems improbable, heavy industry amid the wild beauty of the Oregon Coast -- towing rusted government ships from a national defense fleet anchored 600 miles south in California and scrapping them in Yaquina Bay. Yet financial and political pressure from Washington, D.C., could very well make it so.

Bottom line: Oregon is the cheapest place for shipbreakers to set up shop on the West Coast. Labor costs are lower here, as is the cost of space in which to cut massive vessels apart and clear them of toxic loads."