Car carrier hit by massive fire a year ago readies for new life in China

A year on from a devastating fire which killed one crewmember, the car carrier formerly known as Fremantle Highway is being prepped to head from The Netherlands to new owners in China. 

Dutch authorities have reversed an earlier decision, which had denied current owner Koole Contractors an export permit as the ship – now renamed Floor – was deemed as waste.

An 10-month repair job at a Damen facility in Rotterdam has stripped the car carrier of many of its decks, but has allowed it to be towed east to new owner Qingshan Shipyard Group, which will complete the ship at a repair yard in Xiamen.

The fire on the Fremantle Highway broke out on July 25 last year. At the time of the fire, the Fremantle Highway, on charter to Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, was transporting more than 3,700 cars, including almost five hundred electric cars. The ship was then unloaded in Eemshaven.

Salvage firm Koole Contractors bought the ship in September and renamed it Floor.