The
Danish giant refuses to accept responsibility
 |
Last year, three
former Maersk ships were scrapped near Mumbai, India, by impoverished migrant
workers in dangerous conditions (Photo: Maersk Line)
|
The Danish shipping
giant Maersk Line has been accused by a NGO of not living up to its own ethical
guidelines when it comes to the scrapping of its ships.
Last year, three
former Maersk ships were scrapped at Alang Beach near Mumbai, India, by
impoverished migrant workers in dangerous conditions.
In 2011, Maersk
sold the ships to a Greek shipping company, Diana Shipping, and then chartered
them back for two years. Diana Shipping then sent the ships to be scrapped at
Alang Beach when the contract expired.
“And that means
that Maersk is in conflict with its own ethical guidelines that state the
company’s ships must be scrapped responsibly,” Patrizia Heidegger, the head of
the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, told DR Nyheder.
Not
our problem
Heidegger contends
that Maersk has a responsibility to ensure that the new owners of its ships
should scrap the ships responsibly – something that Maersk disagrees with.
“We take
responsibility for the ships we own,” Jacob Sterling, the head of
sustainability at Maersk, said.
“We believe that
the responsibility for the ships we sell passes on to the new owner, as is the
case if I sold my car.”
Nordic
giants
In related news,
Maersk has been listed as being the second-largest Nordic company based on net
turnover by the analysis firm Largest Companies.
With a net turnover
of 265 billion kroner in 2013, Maersk was only surpassed by the Norwegian oil
company Statoil, which had a monster turnover of 562 billion kroner.
The six other
Danish companies in the top 30 were OW Bunker (11), Novo Nordisk (16), ISS
(19), Arla Foods (24), Dong Energy (27) and Carlsberg (30).
Source:
The
Copenhagen Post. 2 July 2014
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