One business has had to drown its sorrows after a new piece of machinery worth more than $250,000 sank to the floor of the Pacific Ocean.
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Andromeda Industries, based in the New England area, make woven steel slings for industry. They have been set back at least a year, after it turned out that a new, 300 tonne test bed was in one of the containers that fell off the Liberian ship, the YM Efficiency, in rough waters 30km off the coast of Port Stephens.
Only half the 30 metre long test bed was in that container, the other half stayed on the ship in a separate container,but was crushed in the incident, according to Andromeda’s Annette Williams.
I couldn’t believe it – seriously – what are the chances that this happens to a little firm from the middle of country NSW
- Annette Williams
The specialised machinery takes so long to make that Andromeda, based at Moonbi near Tamworth, ordered it last December, and can’t even order another one until the insurance company inspects the damaged half and the investigation is complete, which could take months.
The test bed was going to allow the company to build even bigger slings that would hold up to 300 tonnes, with the initial plans for the upgrade started in 2012.
“We have been a bit fortunate that we hadn’t begun to push or take orders for the product yet – we were going to have a huge launch for it both here and in Sydney, but I guess that is all on hold now, too,” Mrs Williams said.
