Asian Shipowners’ Forum supports ship recycling convention:

The Ship Recycling Committee (SRC) of the Asian Shipowners’ Forum (ASF) has expressed support to the "Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009."

In a recent meeting held in Hanoi, Vietnam, the ASF-SRC noted that the guidelines are being developed by the IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) to assist in the convention's implementation.

Five countries such as France, Netherlands, Italy, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Turkey, have signed the convention as of March 2011.

The SRC also encouraged the governments of the major ship recycling countries to consider ratifying the convention.

Since shipowners will have to assume the statutory obligation to produce the inventory of hazardous materials for their existing vessels within five years of the entry into force of the convention, the SRC encourages cooperation between the governments, classification societies, and shipbuilders for the smooth preparation and development of the inventory.

The SRC also noted that some classification societies have developed software for the inventory of new ships.

The shipbuilding-related associations of Japan, Korea and China are cooperating with each other to produce a common manual for developing the inventory as well as a common format for materials declaration.

While the committee supports the safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships, the SRC notes that there is concern that ship recycling capacity could potentially fall short in the near future.

Source: Manila Bulletin. Monday, 11 April 2011

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