The skeletal remains of the former Exxon Valdez lie
on the beach of the Indian coastal city of Alang. Only a few meters of the
black-and-red steel wall are left, and the bow is already gone. Like ants
devouring a dead animal, shipyard workers use blowtorches to cut apart the
34,000-ton steel giant.
In about two more weeks, there will be nothing left
of the former oil tanker, which in 1989 was responsible for the largest oil
spill ever in the United States, leaking more than 41 million liters (10.8
million gallons) of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. After the
accident, the Exxon Valdez was converted into an ore carrier, and it was most
recently renamed the Oriental N. Priya Blue, an Indian scrapping and salvage
company, bought the freighter last spring for $16 million (€11.9 million),
solely for the purpose of scrapping it.
On Aug. 2, the ship was grounded at high tide on the
beach at Alang. There, at the world's largest graveyard for ships, more than
300 workers are being paid a few rupees a day to dismantle the vessel.
There was a great outcry when it was revealed that
Alang was to be the notorious ship's final resting place. Although it does not
contain more toxic materials than other ships, environmentalists took advantage
of the former tanker's prominence to file a lawsuit at India's Supreme Court to
block its import. It was unsuccessful.
But the trial brought to light, once again, the
catastrophic conditions at many low-wage shipyards in South Asia, where old
ships are being scrapped and gutted. In October, six workers died in a fire in
Alang as they were dismantling the oil tanker Union Brave on the beach. One of
the workers had struck a pipe that still contained oil with his blowtorch.
In Pakistan, more than 20 shipyard workers died and
more than 150 were injured in 2011. And in Alang alone, 173 workers have died
in more than 170 shipyards since 2001, killed by falling steel parts or burned
to death in explosions. Workers are sometimes barefoot as they climb over the
ships, and toxic waste is often incinerated on the beach.
Ship Dumping in South
Asia
Business is booming for the "iron eaters,"
as the scrappers are called, and not just in India. The ongoing global shipping
crisis has forced fleet owners to downsize as older ships become unprofitable.
A record number of more than 1,000 ships were scrapped worldwide in 2012. India
accounted for the largest number, 527, followed by Bangladesh, Pakistan and
China. The expensive steel giants are sometimes taken out of circulation after
only 15 years.
European ship owners also prefer to dump their
defunct ships in South Asia, where there are few environmental and occupational
safety regulations, but where steel is all the more valuable. The scrapping
companies pay about $400 per ton for ships. The high-quality steel used to make
the vessels is in great demand as a resource. Recycling ships currently
satisfies 9 percent of India's demand for steel.
The 6-kilometer road to the world's largest ship
graveyard is like a giant bazaar. Pots, beds, TV sets -- everything that crews
of the scrapped ships once used on board -- are stacked up. The items that
can't be sold, including old batteries and half-empty cans of paint, are simply
burned. The air is filled with acrid smoke, made even worse by fumes from the
trucks that thunder past, loaded with steel sections from the disassembled
ships.
A sign at the end of the road indicates that visitors
have arrived at the "Alang Sosiya Ship Recycling Yard." For
journalists, the trip ends at a police checkpoint. Since the press began
reporting on pollution and slave-like working conditions in the 1990s, the
state government of Gujarat has tried to suppress negative news stories. After
the recent accident on the Union Brave, squad cars began patrolling in the
adjacent cotton fields to prevent bystanders from climbing the high wall that
seals off the beach.
Given the shipyard's seclusion, a meeting with Chetan
Patel must take place elsewhere, in a nearby hotel. Patel runs Shree Ram, one
of the largest scrapping operations at the site. He is among the bosses who
have become rich and are now trying to change Alang's grungy image, in part by
pushing for better working conditions.
'Some Sort of
Certificate'
Asbestos is properly handled in his company, says
Patel. Machine oil is drained into special tanks and radioactive material, such
as that found in smoke detectors, is safely disposed of. Verifying his claims
is impossible.
Japanese investors recently proposed that fixed docks
be built in Alang, says Patel, so as to put an end to the controversial
disassembly on the beach. Existing regulations, however, preclude such a move.
Leases from the government on the beach parcels used by Patel and his neighbors
only run for six months before they must be renewed. "Under such
circumstances, what businessman would be willing to invest in new
facilities?" Patel asks.
His shipyard has a "green pass," which
confirms compliance with ISO environmental standards. Other businesses in Alang
are also switching to more environmentally friendly methods says Patel, adding
that there is a growing awareness of the need to do so. Nevertheless, there is
still no valid international standard specifically for the scrapping industry.
"Among all the recyclers in Alang, probably one
in two can present some sort of certificate," says Gerd Leopold. From his
office in Winsen an der Luhe, near Hamburg, Leopold buys freighters and tankers
for the Indian ship recycler and dealer Priya Blue. He also handled the
purchase of the former Exxon Valdez. Priya Blue is one of the "leading
green recyclers" in Alang, says Leopold. But for ship owners who are
seriously interested in environmental protection and safety, he adds, documents
are not enough to silence their conscience. Instead, they either visit the
shipyards in person or hire experts to do so.
One of them is environmental engineer Henning
Gramann. He tests ships for pollutants on behalf of ship owners and shipyards.
Scandinavian owners, in particular, are increasingly willing to pay for clean
disposal, he says, but this doesn't apply to the bulk of the industry.
"Many ship owners have financial problems, so that voluntary environmental
protection isn't exactly at the top of their list," Gramann says.
From the High Seas to the Scrapyard
The established scrapping practice has been illegal
on paper for a long time. Because asbestos, PCBs, residual oil and heavy metals
can almost always be found on board, the Basel Convention treats ships like
toxic waste: Exports to countries that are not members of the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are banned. Ship owners who want to
send their ships to a country like India to be dismantled would have to obtain
the permission of authorities and ensure that all toxic materials had been
removed. But, says Gramann, "this isn't even possible, because a ship
can't move without fuel and lubricants."
But in practice, the Basel Convention is useless
because it is unenforceable. When the decision to scrap a ship is made at sea,
beyond national territorial waters, the Basel Convention has no jurisdiction --
meaning that most ships begin the journey to their final resting place from the
middle of the ocean. The Hong Kong Convention was intended to remedy the
problem. It permits the export of ships for recycling, but only if certain
requirements are met: Each ship must have a list of hazardous substances on
board and each shipyard must prepare a recycling plan to prevent the
decommissioned ships from being indiscriminately ripped apart. The Hong Kong
Convention was adopted in 2009 -- but no country has ratified it to date.
For this reason, in March 2012 the European
Commission proposed its own, more stringent regulations to force ship owners
and shipyards to take responsibility. Under these rules, ships sailing under
European flags can only be disposed of in shipyards that have made it onto an
EU "green list." The scrapping yards would have to provide evidence
of the presence of wharfs or docks, as well as hazardous waste disposal
facilities. Compliance monitoring would not be left up to local authorities,
but instead would be handled by international inspectors working for the EU.
The ship owners' lobby is protesting the proposed
European regulations, which have also triggered resentment in countries where
scrapping businesses are located, especially China. The country sees itself as
a pioneer of "green" recycling. China hopes that once the Hong Kong
Convention comes into effect, it will have a head start over low-cost
competition.
Fighting for Every Ship
The Chinese, already the world's largest
shipbuilders, are now vigorously establishing scrapping operations. But
one-sided EU requirements "I will not accept, our country will not
accept," says Xie Dehua, president of the Chinese scrapping association.
After all, he notes, Europe wants to get rid of its scrap. That, though, is
only part of the truth. China's scrappers need the out-of-commission ships
badly. They have invested a lot of money in new facilities and, now that the
price of steel in the country is falling, they have to fight for every ship.
Yang Guiwang is head of the Tianjin-Tianma shipyard.
The state-owned business recently moved to the shore of the Yellow Sea, where
there is more space and there are longer piers and bigger cranes. Within three
months, an industrial wasteland had been converted into a finished shipyard.
Four rusting ocean giants are now docked at the pier.
One of them, the Direktor, built in Germany in 1982, has been largely gutted. A
floating plastic ring encircles the hull to prevent oil leakage. The sorted
remains of the refrigerated cargo ship are laid out on six concrete rectangles
the size of soccer fields: pieces of steel, engine parts and scrap metal. The
workers wear helmets. When toxic materials or asbestos are disposed of, says
Yang, the workers put on protective suits and gas masks.
But Yang has a problem: He can't compete with India
and its lower wages. "A friend of mine is a Chinese ship owner," he
says. "I spent weeks negotiating for one of his ships. In the end, I
offered him $352 per ton, but the Indians offered $357. I lost out."
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
Source: By Isabell
Hülsen, Wieland Wagner and Bernhard Zand
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/global-ship-breaking-business-booms-as-container-industry-suffers-a-883122.html
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