Noncompliance of environment-friendly recycling
rules and dearth of skilled manpower may pose a threat to the existence of the
country's emerging shipbreaking industry in the long-run, experts say.
"The policy formulated by the government
focusing environment friendly recycling remained a far cry to implement,"
Dr Shahriar Iqbal, professor of the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine
Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), told
the FE.
Dr Iqbal also said another setback in the potential
foreign currency earning sector is unskilled workforce which may discourage
ship owners to recycle their ships in Bangladesh
He said China
Bangladeshi ship recycling industry represents more
than a quarter of the world's recycling capacity and the country is considered
very important for the world's maritime transport.
"Now we are hopeful about the growth of the
industry as the government has taken some effective measures including
formulation of the green recycling rules and regulations," said Capt
Salahuddin Ahmed, Technical Advisor, Bangladesh Ship Breakers' Association.
Regrettably, existing workforce needs more training
on their respective practical field for long term betterment of the industry,
Mr Ahmed added.
Mr Iqbal said that the government should upgrade
this industry into safe and environment-friendly and efficient ship recycling
industry trough employing a skilled workforce to rescue the sector from rivals'
threats.
He suggested that the government should employ more
naval architects and marine engineers in the sector especially who have
education and research background earned from reputed institutions like BUET to
improve overall situation of existing shipbreaking practice.
Only an efficient work force can attract global
attention to make the nation a leading country in the emerging forex earning
industry through upgrading itself as a safe and environment-friendly and
economically viable recycling industry, he added.
He said that the proposed Ship Building
The industry will help enhance economic growth and
support development for local and regional community through providing large
scale employment, he said, adding, more than 350 re-rolling mills have been
using ship scraps as their raw materials while another 100 shipyards directly
or indirectly benefit from the scraps.
The industry is currently supplying more than 60%
of the raw materials for local steel industry. Besides, local shipbuilding
industry also largely depends on this as raw materials mostly are being used
from scrap steel, the ship expert informed.
Quoting report findings, the expert said that
around 50,000 people are directly involved with the shipbreaking industry while
another 0.1 million people are involved indirectly, and the figure is
increasing.
He expressed that there also important economic
benefit to the economies of our country through the recycling of steel, wood,
machinery and equipment that would otherwise have to be imported.
A good number of local industries including heavy
and light engineering already been developed depending on shipbreaking
industry, he said.
Quoting a report that in 2010 the world fleet of
ships over 500 GT was around 56,000 ships while the fleet over 3,000 GT was
around 32000 ships, the naval expert informed.
He said that a realistic average life-span of a
ship presently is 30 years and thus on an average around 1800 ships of over 500
GT or 1000 ships over 3000 GT need to be recycled each year.
Source: The Financial Express. By Khairul Islam. 21 January 2012
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=95270&date=2012-01-21
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