Yard owner applies to be on the list of
facilities approved to demolish European-flag ships
Two privately owned Chinese recycling yards are making a bid to win
approval from the European Union (EU) to break up ships registered with a
member state.
Zhoushan Changhong International Ship Recycling Co and Jiang Xiagang
Changjiang Ship Recycling Yard owner Hongwei Li personally handed over the
applications to Julio Burgues, head of the EU’s waste management and recycling
unit, this week.
Burgues is familiar with the yards, having visited them both in 2013, and
is understood to be keen on granting approval.
Li says the pair are the first and second-largest ship-recycling
facilities in the world and between them have the capacity to annually recycle
a whopping 220 ships with an average lightweight of 10,500 tons each.
It is understood that this is the first application of its kind from a
non-OECD ship-recycling facility. Both are purpose built using quayside and
drydocks to demolish tonnage.
Recycling consultancy Sea2cradle founder Tom Peter Blankestijn has
managed around 90 projects at the yards and says they have the highest
standards of health, safety and the environment in the industry.
He says the waste-disposal facilities at both yards are a key part of the
application.
“The quality levels and detail of the waste disposal that are now incorporated
in the [European] ship recycling facility plan, is the basis of today’s EU
application,” he said.
Class society Lloyd’s Register has also assisted in verifying the quality
level at the facilities.
The application is based on the EU’s ship-recycling regulation, which was
approved this year and requires EU-flag ships to be demolished only at approved
recycling yards.
Recycling yards must meet a number of strict safety and environmental
criteria, including dismantling on a non-permeable floor, which in effect rules
out beaching as a method of dismantling ships. Almost all the breaking capacity
in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh will not be able to meet the EU approval
criteria.
Li is also vice-chairman of the International Ship Recycling Association,
an organisation that earlier this year strongly criticised “unacceptable”
methods used by some beaching yards.
“International legislation like the recently introduced European
Regulation on ship recycling should help to make an end to these practices
which are very bad for human safety and the image of this industry,” it said in
a statement.
However, the Indian Recycling Association has claimed that its members
have made significant progress improving safety and environmental protection.
They claim that the EU’s move to ban beaching threatens to isolate them and may
be detrimental to improvements being made.
In addition, Chinese recycling yards pay significantly less than Indian
and Pakistan facilities for tonnage, which could work against them in the
market.
Zhoushan Changhong and Jiang Xiagang Changjiang are expected to be joined
by Turkish yards in applying for EU approval.
Source: steel guru. 19 December 2014
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