The beaches of South Asia received the majority of ships being sent for
demolition during the third quarter, and several of these ships had their flags
changed as their owners sought to sidestep their respective governing
regulations on responsible ship recycling, according to the NGO Shipbreaking
Platform.
From January to September 2014, more than 70% out of 202 unwanted ships
were sent to the beaches of South Asia for scrapping. NGO Shipbreaking Platform
further outlined that 39 of those ships sent to South Asian beaches were owned
by European shipowners, with Greek owners alone selling 19 ships to South Asian
breakers.
“Despite the new EU law outruling the use of the beaching method to
dismantle EU-flagged vessels, ships registered under the flags of Cyprus, Malta
and Greece hit the beaches – more ships also changed their flag from an EU to a
non-EU flag just weeks before reaching South Asia,” NGO Shipbreaking Platform
noted.
The organisation detailed that Poland’s Polsteam sold three vessels to
South Asian breakers during the third quarter, all registered under the flag of
Vanuatu.
More interestingly, China’s Cosco reportedly will receive a $225m subsidy
to decommission and upgrade ships domestically, but one of the company’s
China-flagged vessels was sold to a Bangladeshi breaker in July.
“More than half of the Chinese owned ships broken this (third) quarter
were sold to South Asian breakers. None of these – except the government owned
ships sold to Bangladesh – were registered under the Chinese flag,” NGO
Shipbreaking Platform revealed.
Flags of convenience such as Comoros, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Tuvalu,
that are less favourable during operational use, were popular flags for the
end-of-life ships broken in South Asia, it added.
“Finally, whilst German Hapag-Lloyd joined the group of progressive
shipowners committed to responsible ship recycling off the beach, Dutch
shipowner Vroon BV does the opposite by selling one of its livestock vessels to
Bangladesh,” it said.
So far this year, 515 ships have ended up on the beaches of South Asia,
bringing the total death toll this year to 21 workers.
Source: seatrade-global. 14 October 2014
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