4 ms·

Ships and their crews can‘t be cheap. Who paid to put the ammonium nirate on the ruby? Who paid for the ship to go somewhere? What was the original deal involvi

Ships and their crews can‘t be cheap. Who paid to put the ammonium nirate on the ruby? Who paid for the ship to go somewhere? What was the original deal involving the ammonium nitrate? Did someone in another country originally plan to buy it but the deal was later cancelled? The ammonium nitrate cargo alone is worth several million us dollar.

illwrks 2y ago
Perhaps it was someone trying to get around sanctions on Russian imports, was found out and refused entry/ abandoned?
- protomolecule 2y ago
  There are no sanctions on Russian fertilizers. Europe's fertilizer production is down due to high natural gas prices (I wonder what happened) and import from Russia is up.
  - wewxjfq 2y ago
    Do you want to provide sources for these claims? I see Germany's fertilizer exports are down by 10%, while its fertilizer imports from Russia fell by 80%. Fertilizer production seems to be up, but this metric is tracked by value only.
    - protomolecule 2y ago
      "For some types of fertiliser, such as urea, imports have even increased since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The cheap fertiliser has helped European farmers, but the region’s own fertiliser producers have been struggling to compete. “We are right now being flooded by fertilisers from Russia, which are significantly cheaper than our fertilisers, for the simple reason that they pay peanuts for natural gas in comparison to us European producers,” said Petr Cingr, chief executive of SKW Stickstoffwerke Piesteritz, Germany’s largest producer of ammonia. “If politicians will not act,” he warned, Europe’s production capacity “will disappear”. ... A third of EU imports of urea, the cheapest form of nitrogen-based fertiliser, come from Russia, with the amount imported in 2023 close to record levels, Eurostat data shows. Poland’s imports of Russian urea climbed to almost $120mn in 2023, up from just over $84mn in 2021, for example, according to customs data. ... Other big players are leaving the market. BASF, the world’s largest chemicals group, has shrunk its operations in Europe over the past few years, including its fertiliser business, and instead focused new investments in the US and China, where costs are lower." [0] [0] https://archive.is/20240630042149/https://www.ft.com/content/8d4e6543-f210-4a26-9bed-93fd0c35b6e6 https://archive.is/20240630042149/https://www.ft.com/content...
krona 2y ago
Its a maltese ship headed to Malta. https://archive.ph/jFtD7#selection-1429.111-1429.116 https://archive.ph/jFtD7#selection-1429.111-1429.116 > It is then expected to continue through the Channel with its destination listed as Marsaxlokk in Malta. The authorities in Malta said that they would only accept the vessel if it got rid of its cargo beforehand.
- ryanjshaw 2y ago
  Ships are registered in Malta as a matter of convenience. See: they don't want the cargo either. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_convenience https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_convenience
  - jamil7 2y ago
    There’s a book capitalism and the sea that goes into more detail on this. It’s mostly a means for shipping companies to skirt regulations.
protomolecule 2y ago
[flagged]
- KronisLV 2y ago
  > Lithuania refused to help to spite Russia. This was explained in the article: > Lithuania refused because of the dangerous nature of the cargo. If 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate were to detonate, it would obliterate the center of any port city — the blast would be equal to a third of the 1945 Hiroshima bomb. That would be a repeat of the devastating explosion of the same substance in Beirut in 2020, although Ruby is carrying seven times more ammonium nitrate. That's hardly spite.
  - protomolecule 2y ago
    You should've quoted the next paragraph too. There would be no need for it if the danger of fertilizer was enough to justify the refusal. "While Lithuanian authorities announced there was no evidence of malicious intent against the country’s national security, they noted that when dealing with Russia, or other unfriendly international actors, states should always be cautious." And then the article goes on trying to justify that by saying that Russia has set on fire an IKEA warehouse (wat?) and is jamming GPS. Sure, this means that Russia is going to murder tens of thousands civilians by detonating its ship with fertilizer.
    - KronisLV 2y ago
      Caution feels like the right choice regardless: > On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in the capital city of Lebanon exploded, causing at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and US$15 billion in property damage, as well as leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless. A cargo of 2,750 tonnes of the substance (equivalent to around 1.1 kilotons of TNT) had been stored in a warehouse without proper safety measures for the previous six years after having been confiscated by Lebanese authorities from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus. This ship carries considerably more. You can critique the framing and language used if you want, but I doubt many officials would be happy to take that risk.

illwrks 2y ago

Perhaps it was someone trying to get around sanctions on Russian imports, was found out and refused entry/ abandoned?

protomolecule 2y ago
There are no sanctions on Russian fertilizers. Europe's fertilizer production is down due to high natural gas prices (I wonder what happened) and import from Russia is up.
- wewxjfq 2y ago
  Do you want to provide sources for these claims? I see Germany's fertilizer exports are down by 10%, while its fertilizer imports from Russia fell by 80%. Fertilizer production seems to be up, but this metric is tracked by value only.
  - protomolecule 2y ago
    "For some types of fertiliser, such as urea, imports have even increased since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The cheap fertiliser has helped European farmers, but the region’s own fertiliser producers have been struggling to compete. “We are right now being flooded by fertilisers from Russia, which are significantly cheaper than our fertilisers, for the simple reason that they pay peanuts for natural gas in comparison to us European producers,” said Petr Cingr, chief executive of SKW Stickstoffwerke Piesteritz, Germany’s largest producer of ammonia. “If politicians will not act,” he warned, Europe’s production capacity “will disappear”. ... A third of EU imports of urea, the cheapest form of nitrogen-based fertiliser, come from Russia, with the amount imported in 2023 close to record levels, Eurostat data shows. Poland’s imports of Russian urea climbed to almost $120mn in 2023, up from just over $84mn in 2021, for example, according to customs data. ... Other big players are leaving the market. BASF, the world’s largest chemicals group, has shrunk its operations in Europe over the past few years, including its fertiliser business, and instead focused new investments in the US and China, where costs are lower." [0] [0] https://archive.is/20240630042149/https://www.ft.com/content/8d4e6543-f210-4a26-9bed-93fd0c35b6e6 https://archive.is/20240630042149/https://www.ft.com/content...

krona 2y ago

Its a maltese ship headed to Malta. https://archive.ph/jFtD7#selection-1429.111-1429.116 https://archive.ph/jFtD7#selection-1429.111-1429.116 > It is then expected to continue through the Channel with its destination listed as Marsaxlokk in Malta. The authorities in Malta said that they would only accept the vessel if it got rid of its cargo beforehand.

ryanjshaw 2y ago
Ships are registered in Malta as a matter of convenience. See: they don't want the cargo either. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_convenience https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_convenience
- jamil7 2y ago
  There’s a book capitalism and the sea that goes into more detail on this. It’s mostly a means for shipping companies to skirt regulations.

protomolecule 2y ago

[flagged]

KronisLV 2y ago
> Lithuania refused to help to spite Russia. This was explained in the article: > Lithuania refused because of the dangerous nature of the cargo. If 20,000 tons of ammonium nitrate were to detonate, it would obliterate the center of any port city — the blast would be equal to a third of the 1945 Hiroshima bomb. That would be a repeat of the devastating explosion of the same substance in Beirut in 2020, although Ruby is carrying seven times more ammonium nitrate. That's hardly spite.
- protomolecule 2y ago
  You should've quoted the next paragraph too. There would be no need for it if the danger of fertilizer was enough to justify the refusal. "While Lithuanian authorities announced there was no evidence of malicious intent against the country’s national security, they noted that when dealing with Russia, or other unfriendly international actors, states should always be cautious." And then the article goes on trying to justify that by saying that Russia has set on fire an IKEA warehouse (wat?) and is jamming GPS. Sure, this means that Russia is going to murder tens of thousands civilians by detonating its ship with fertilizer.
  - KronisLV 2y ago
    Caution feels like the right choice regardless: > On 4 August 2020, a large amount of ammonium nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut in the capital city of Lebanon exploded, causing at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, and US$15 billion in property damage, as well as leaving an estimated 300,000 people homeless. A cargo of 2,750 tonnes of the substance (equivalent to around 1.1 kilotons of TNT) had been stored in a warehouse without proper safety measures for the previous six years after having been confiscated by Lebanese authorities from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus. This ship carries considerably more. You can critique the framing and language used if you want, but I doubt many officials would be happy to take that risk.