Brussels — The NGO Shipbreaking Platform has releases
a complete list of all ship owners and their ships sold for breaking last year.
Out of a total of 1026 ships dismantled globally in 2014, 641 – representing 74
percent of the total gross tonnage scrapped – were sold to substandard
facilities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh where ships are dismantled
directly on tidal beaches. None of the South Asian yards comply with
international standards for safe and environmentally sound ship recycling: In
2014 the Platform reported 23 deaths and 66 severe injuries due to demolition
accidents.
“South Asia is still the preferred dumping ground for
most ship owners as environmental, safety and labour rights standards are
poorly enforced there,” said Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO
Shipbreaking Platform. “Ship owners sell their ships to the beaching yards for
considerably greater profit than the price they could obtain by cooperating
with modern ship recycling facilities. It is shameful for the shipping industry
that so many ship owners choose to close their eyes to the realities
on-the-ground in South Asia and do not to face up to their responsibility and
demand clean, safe and just ship recycling.”
285 owned or flagged by an EU Member
State
The European Union has a particular responsibility to
act – 34 percent of the gross tonnage broken in South Asia last year was
European. Amongst the ships dismantled in 2014, 285 were either owned by a
European company or flying the flag of an EU Member State. Two thirds of these
European ships – 182 ships, including many having primarily operated in
European waters – were beached. Whilst large European shipping nations such as
Greece and Germany unsurprisingly top the list of 2014 worst dumping countries,
selling respectively 70 and 41 large oceangoing vessels to South Asian
breakers, they also top the list of ship-owning countries which sell almost
exclusively to South Asian breakers, rather than to modern recyclers.
Cyprus owners sold a record high 92 percent of their
old ships to substandard yards in South Asia, German owners as much as 87
percent and Greek owners 76 percent. Comparatively, Chinese owners, including
those based in Hong Kong, only sold 39 percent of their end-of-life vessels to
beaching facilities in South Asia. China is the only major shipping nation in
the world building up domestic capacity and working towards self-sufficiency in
the management of its end-of-life fleet.
Extensive use of non-compliant flags
Despite the new EU Ship Recycling Regulation, which
entered into force on 30 December 2013 and which out-rules the use of the
beaching method to dismantle EU-flagged vessels, 41 ships registered under the
flags of EU Member states Malta, Italy, Cyprus, UK and Greece hit the beaches
in 2014. 15 additional ships changed their flag from an EU to a non-EU flag
just weeks before reaching South Asia. As in previous years, particular flags
of convenience such as Saint Kitts and Nevis (64 ships), Comoros (39 ships),
Tuvalu (24 ships), Tanzania (20 ships) and Togo (20 ships) that are less
favoured during operational use, were excessively popular flags for the
end-of-life ships broken in South Asia. Any attempt to regulate ship recycling
based only on flag state responsibility will have little impact due to the
extensive use of non-compliant flags.
According to NGO Shipbreaking Platform, unless an
economic incentive is added to the EU’s Ship Recycling Regulation, the
registration of EU ships under flags of convenience such as Saint Kitts and
Nevis, Tuvalu and Comoros is likely to increase, and will allow ship owners to
sail around the law once it enters into force, and to continue dumping their
ships in substandard facilities.
German ship owner tops the list
German ship owner Ernst Komrowski tops the list of the
worst global dumpers with 14 end-of-life vessels sold to the beaches – all of
these were formerly part of the Maersk fleet and had been on a long-term
charter with the Danish container ship giant, which oppositely to Komrowski has
a strict ship recycling policy for its own vessels. Second ranks South Korea’s
largest container ship owner Hanjin Shipping with 11 ships, followede by
Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Company. Hanjin and MSC’s bad practice
stands in sharp contrast to that of their competitors Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd,
two leading containership companies that have committed themselves to the
recycling of their end-of-life vessels in modern facilities off the beach.
Number four amongst the worst dumpers is Brazilian oil giant Petrobras with six
end-of-life vessels sold to South Asia.
Komrowski, Hanjin, MSC and Petrobras are followed by a
range of companies which have all sold five end-of-life vessels to the beaches,
amongst them well-know dumpers such as Conti, one of the largest German ship
owners offering private investment in ships, G-Bulk and Danaos from Greece and
Ignazio Messina from Italy. Also American TBS International, Singapore-based
Pacific International and Taiwanese owner Yang Ming each sold five ships to the
beaches in South Asia.
Ship owners have alternative choices
“It is time for the global leaders in shipping to
commit to clean and safe ship recycling,” says Patrizia Heidegger. “Every
single ship owner can do something: Instead of selling to intermediaries and
losing leverage on the fate of their vessel, ship owners can talk to ship
recycling experts and negotiate directly with modern ship recycling facilities.
Teekay and Hapag-Lloyd’s decision last year to adopt responsible ship recycling
policies shows that ship owners can make alternative choices”, comments Heidegger.
The Platform advises ship owners on what they can do
to ensure sustainable end-of-life policies for their fleet and currently counts
13 major ships owners which practice clean and safe ship recycling in modern
facilities off the beach.
Source: recycling portal. 28 January 2015
