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Shipbreakers in Indonesia. Dockyards and shorelines across Canada are
increasingly littered with abandoned, discarded ships, Transport Canada
suggests.
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The government of Canada thinks there may be an opportunity for Canadian
companies to get into the business of scrapping and recycling ships that have
outweighed their useful life.
Transport Canada last week put out a tender for “an assessment of the
current Canadian capacity for small and large vessel recycling.”
Most ships last for a few decades, and when their useful life is over
their owners typically sell them to countries that specialize in shipbreaking,
such as Bangladesh, China, India, Pakistan and Turkey, the document notes. When
they scrap the ships, firms in these countries recover huge quantities of
steel.
In Canada, some ships are not even worth towing overseas: dock yards and
shore lines across the country are increasingly littered with abandoned,
discarded ships, Transport Canada suggests.
“A recent Transport Canada inventory shows 22 abandoned vessels that are
over 100 ft in length and made of steel,” says the document, Marine Vessel
End-of-Life Cycle Management.
Transport Canada’s efforts to encourage a domestic ship recycling
industry come as Canada has largely retreated from the business of building
ships. Until recently Canada retained a 25% tariff on the import to Canada of
foreign-built ships. The penalty failed to inspire orders for domestic-built
ships, however, and in 2010 Canada scrapped the tariff.
In response, recently ship owners in Canada such as Algoma Central Corp.,
Canada Steamship Lines, Lower Lakes Towing Ltd. and Transports Degagnés Inc.
have ordered among them 35 new ships worth $1-billion, to renew the fleet that
hauls bulk cargo such as grain, iron ore, rock, gravel, coal and salt through
the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes.
Source: financial post. 10 February 2015
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