'Flat-pack' salmon cages begin the long march from China
The sections of the latest, fully closed iteration of the Aquatraz pens will be assembled in Norway
Published
Modified
Six “Aquatraz” floating closed cages to be used by salmon farming heavyweights SalMar and Lerøy have begun a 50-day sea journey to Norway.
In July, Fish Farming Expert’s Norwegian sister site, Kyst.no, reported that the six Aquatraz C2 pens were nearing completion at the Blue Ocean Wind shipyard in China. The cages are built in sections which are being transported to Norway for assembly at Coast Center Base (CCB), a major maritime and petroleum industrial cluster located at Ågotnes in Øygarden municipality, about a 25-minute drive west of Bergen.
Alf Reidar Sandstad, chief executive of Aquatraz developer Seafarming Systems, said: “The cages are delivered as ‘Ikea’ kits. CCB assembles the cages, which are then towed to the locations.”
The collaboration with CCB was entered into to handle precisely this part of the production. The plan has always been to combine block manufacturing in China with assembly in Norway.
SalMar and Lerøy, which each own 50% of Scotland's second largest salmon producer, Scottish Sea Farms, will each get three Aquatraz cages.
The Aquatraz C2 cages have an enclosed volume of 70,000 cubic metres and are designed for both post-smolt production and production of fish right up to harvest weight.
When asked when the six cages can be operational, Sandstad replies that most of them should be ready for use this year.
The total production time is estimated to be around 11 months from steel cutting in China to fully assembled cages in Norway.
