The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a global coalition of
environmental and human rights organisations seeking to prevent dirty and
dangerous shipbreaking worldwide, today 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% of the total gross
tonnage (GT) 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 .
End-of-life ships contain toxic materials such as
asbestos, heavy metals, PCBs, oil residues and organic waste within their
structures – these pollutants can not be contained or safely removed on a tidal
beach. The demolition of the largest movable man-made structures is hazardous
and must be conducted in a controlled manner using adequate infrastructure such
as cranes as well as necessary health and safety provisions – in 2014 the
Platform reported 23 deaths and 66 severe injuries due to accidents such as
explosions, workers crushed under steel plates and falling from heights on the
South Asian beaches.
“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.”
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. Being based in a
leading ship building country and with a strong environmental profile, Hanjin
should also be aware of issues related to safe and clean recycling, still, they
chose profit over people and the environment. Third ranks repeat offender
Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) – the second largest container
ship operator in the world whose shipbreaking activities in India have already
cost the life of six workers in 2009 when a fire broke out on the MSC Jessica.
Despite recurrent public criticism of MSC’s deplorable management of their
end-of-life fleet, MSC has not developed a ship recycling policy that can
prevent such tragic accidents. 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 Petrobras with six end-of-life vessels sold to
South Asia: the Brazilian oil giant is the largest company of the Southern
Hemisphere, but in contrast to other major oil and gas companies unwilling to
recycle its old tankers properly.
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.
In 2014, the Platform investigated upon which vessels
accidents have occurred and informed the owners, who had unscrupulously sold
these ships to a substandard yard, about the deaths and severe injuries. Whilst
most of these owners, including German Johann M.K. Blumenthal and
Singapore-based Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) have ignored the Platform and
seemingly feel no responsibility, Norwegian Teekay expressed gratitude for
having been made aware of an explosion on one of their beached tankers in
Bangladesh and committed to setting much higher standards when choosing future
end-of-life destinations.
“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”, says 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 ship owners which practice clean and safe ship recycling in modern
facilities off the beach.
The European Union has a particular responsibility to
act – 34% 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% of their old ships to substandard yards in South Asia, German
owners as much as 87% and Greek owners 76%. Comparatively, Chinese owners, including
those based in Hong Kong, only sold 39% 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.
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. 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.
Source: Hellenic shipping news. 28 January 2015
