The
demolition of dry bulk ships has already reached record level in deadweight
tonnage terms, according a report by Platts. As of October 14, 300 dry bulk
carriers, aggregating 19.6 million dwt, had been sold for scrap so far this
year, beating by 160% the previous record of 12.2 million dwt set in the whole
of 1986, Frangou Angeliki, chairman and CEO of Navios Maritime Partners told
analysts on a conference call to discuss the company's third-quarter result, Platts
report added.
Meanwhile,
the rise in demolition activity has raised concern about the export of
hazardous wastes such as asbestos, PCBs, residue oils and heavy metals from
developed nations to developing nations. Legal experts and NGOs that attended the
10th Conference of the Parties to the Basel Covention at Cartagena in Colombia
voiced the voiced the concern that the IMO’s Hong Kong Convention will not stop
hazardous wastes from being exported to the poorest communities and most
desperate workers in developing counties. The Hong Kong Convention, which was
adopted in 2009, but has not yet been ratified by a single country, has no
intention of minimizing the movement of toxic ships to developing countries.
Currently
the 1989 Basel Convention is the only legal instrument on transboundary
movements of waste, and the only legal tool developing countries can
successfully use to stop toxic ships from entering their territorial waters.
The
developing countries who wanted the Basel Convention to be in force was
supported by the Basel Action Network and the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a
global coalition of labor rights and environmental organizations dedicated to
promoting safe and environmentally sound ship recycling and preventing toxic
ships from disproportionately burdening developing countries. "The Hong Kong Convention is radically different from the
Basel Convention as it puts the costs and liabilities of waste management on
the importing state and not the polluter – who in this case is the ship owner",
said Ingvild Jenssen, Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
"The
Hong Kong Convention does not even prohibit the dangerous beaching method, a
substandard method of ship dismantling whereby ships are broken up on tidal
beaches by untrained and unprotected workers, causing severe pollution,
injuries and deaths." "The Basel Convention clearly considers that
illegal traffic of hazardous waste is a criminal activity. The Hong Kong
Convention, however, does not require the criminalization of illegal transfer of
hazardous waste", added Dr. Marcos Orellana from the Centre of
International Environmental Law (CIEL)
Last year 5.8 million dwt of dry bulk tonnage was sold for scrap,
representing just 1.3% of the global fleet. The number of dry bulk carriers
sold for demolition so far this year represented 3.65% of the global dry bulk
carrier fleet. George Achniotis,
senior vice president of business development at Navios Maritime, said an
average of 1.2% of the world fleet was committed for demolition each year in the
period 2000-2010, inclusive.
Of
the 300 dry bulk carriers sold for demolition this year, 64 were Capesize
bulkers. At the current level of demolition, Achniotis said, the industry is
set to commit 24.9 million dwt of dry bulk tonnage for demolition in the whole
of 2011, representing 4.7% of the existing global dry bulk fleet, Platts report
added.
Source: Scrap Monster. 25
October 2011
http://www.scrapmonster.com/news/ship-breaking-intensifies-on-low-freight-rates-higher-scrap-prices/1/3538
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