Shipper pledges to take more
responsibility in light of criticism of its scrapping methods
On the heels of the troubling affair
concerning the oil tanker ‘North Sea Producer’, which after 32 years of service
for Maersk is being scrapped at a notorious yard in Bangladesh, the Danish
shipping company is changing course, according to Politiken.
Maersk now says that if a ship is no longer
viable, it will take responsibility for getting it scrapped and not sell it.
This will ensure that the dismantling occurs according to Maersk’s own rules on
ship recycling that take into account worker safety, the environment and the
risk of corruption.
A dangerous and toxic
environment
When the dismantling takes place on an open
beach, as is the case in India and Bangladesh, where ships are disassembled by
hand by workers without safety equipment, there is a high risk of serious
accidents.
This year alone, 17 workers at Chittagong
Beach in Bangladesh have been killed while scrapping ships. The process also
pollutes the seas with oil and other toxins from the ship.
It is under circumstances like those that
workers in Bangladesh are currently dismantling the ‘North Sea Producer’. The
ship was in Maersk’s service until it was sold in April of this year and wound
up on the beach in Bangladesh last August.
Maersk admits that it currently has no control
over the dispensation of its former ship. As a direct consequence, Maersk has
introduced new rules.
New rules
When Maersk sells a ship from here on out,
the value of continuing to sail the ship is weighed against the potential net
benefits of scrapping it.
If the ship is so worn that the potential
financial gain of keeping it in service is less than 25 percent of the scrap
value, then Maersk will not sell it, but take responsibility for the ship being
scrapped by the company’s rules.
Source: CPH
Post. 18 October 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment