German, Korean and Swiss shipowners top the list of
those sending their ships to South Asian beaches for recycling in a study by
presure group NGO Shipbreaking in 2014.
According to NGO Shipbreaking Platform's annual list
of demolished ships, 1,026 ships are said to have been dismantled in 2014, with
641 ending up in what it says are substandard facilities on the beaches of
South Asia.
In 2014, 23 deaths and 66 severe injuries were
reported on South Asian beaches as the result of explosions, crushing and falls
from height while dismantling ships.
Ernst Komrowski, a German shipowner, sold the most
ships to the beaches in 2014. All 14 of the vessels it scrapped were previously
in the Maersk fleet or chartered to Maersk.
The second-highest number of ships beached was from
South Korea's Hanjin Shipping. The report highlighted South Korea's prominence
as a shipbuilder and its strong environmental profile, Hanjin sent 11 ships to
meet their end on South Asian beaches.
Third place Mediterranean Shipping Company sent seven
ships to the beaches, even though it had suffered the death of six workers in
2009 when a fire broke out on the MSC Jessica as it was being dismantled in
India.
European ships accounted for 285 of the total ships
scrapped worldwide, with1 82 of those making their way to beaching facilities
that lack any compliance with international standards for ship recycling. The
New EU Ship Recycling Regulation came into force at the end of 2013, but has
either been ignored or ships have re-flagged to non-EU flags ahead of beaching
to dodge jurisdiction.
The use of tidal beaches means that pollutants cannot
be contained, and the use of heavy lift machinery is impossible, putting both
worker's lives and the environment at significant risk. China was identified by
NGO Shipbreaking as the only major shipping nation building up capacity to
recycle its end-of-life fleet. 163 ships were recycled in China, with 93 of
those vessels under the Chinese flag.
Source: seatrade-global. 26 January 2015
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