Cold Layup

What Is Cold Lay-Up?

Cold lay-up is the most cost-effective option for shipowners planning to take a vessel out of active service for one year or more. During cold lay-up, the vessel is fully decommissioned — crew signs off, all major machinery is shut down, and only certified, experienced watchkeepers remain onboard for 24/7 monitoring.

At International Shipcare, we design every cold lay-up programme to protect vessel integrity, manage corrosion risk, and ensure your vessel can return to service as efficiently as possible — with a target reactivation time of 14 days.

Cold Lay-Up vs Running Costs

Cost Category	Normal Running (100%)	Warm Lay-Up	Cold Lay-Up
H&M Insurance	100%	100%	70%
P&I Insurance	100%	50%	10%
Crewing	100%	70%	0%
Repair & Maintenance	100%	50%	0%
Spares & Consumables	100%	33%	0%
Auxiliary Fuel	100%	50%	5%

Cold lay-up eliminates crewing, repair, maintenance, and spare parts costs entirely — making it the optimal choice for extended idle periods.

Cold Lay-Up Procedure

Step 1: Initial Visit & Scoping

ISC’s Technical Superintendent visits the vessel to discuss the full deactivation scope. A customised Inspection Checklist covering weekly and monthly tasks is developed, serving as the operational guide throughout the entire lay-up period.

Step 2: Vessel Deactivation

ISC mobilises key lay-up equipment — Dehumidification (DH) Machines, Portable Generators, and Watchman Huts. Safety systems are set up on board (target: Day 7), after which the crew signs off and disembarks. Deactivation work typically takes 20–30 days from vessel arrival. A Lay-Up Completion Report is submitted to owners upon completion.

Step 3: Vessel Preservation

Tropical climates present the greatest corrosion risk due to high relative humidity. ISC deploys offshore-grade DH Machines to maintain optimal Relative Humidity (RH) levels throughout the vessel. Standard small dehumidifiers are inadequate for the large internal volumes found in LNG carriers and bulk vessels — ISC’s industrial-grade units are engineered specifically for this challenge.

Step 4: Routine Inspection Activities

A dedicated team led by a Technical Superintendent is assigned to each vessel. Scheduled onboard inspections are conducted weekly and monthly in accordance with the agreed checklist. All activities are documented and reported to owners/managers.

Step 5: Anchor Activity

Anchor activities are conducted every 12–16 weeks to prevent anchor chain twist, fouling, or seabed entanglement — ensuring the vessel remains safe and operationally ready for reactivation

Why Cold Lay-Up Requires Professional Management

Vessels that are laid up without proper preservation are at serious risk of corrosion-related damage. Based on ISC’s 50 years of experience, vessels without dehumidification often break down upon reactivation and require towing to the nearest port for repairs — resulting in significant unplanned costs that far exceed the savings made during lay-up.

ISC’s cold lay-up programme is the most comprehensive in the industry, aligned with Lloyd’s Register guidelines and developed from gap analysis of multiple class requirements.

Q: What is cold lay-up in shipping?

Cold lay-up is a formal process of decommissioning a ship for an extended period (typically 12 months or more), shutting down all major machinery, signing off the crew, and placing the vessel under a dedicated preservation and monitoring programme.

Q: How is cold lay-up different from warm lay-up?

In cold lay-up, no crew remains onboard (only certified watchkeepers), no machinery runs, and costs are reduced to a minimum. Warm lay-up keeps a skeleton crew and essential systems running, making the vessel quicker to reactivate but at higher ongoing cost.

Q: How do you prevent corrosion during cold lay-up in tropical climates?

ISC uses offshore-grade industrial dehumidification (DH) machines to control relative humidity inside vessel compartments. In tropical climates like Brunei Bay, small consumer-grade dehumidifiers are completely inadequate