GMS, a buyer of ships
for recycling, has voiced its support of the Danish Ship Association (DSA)
which refuses to ban beaching outright following the recent announcement by
their Norwegian counterparts. GMS supports DSA’s position that ship recycling
choice shouldn’t be based just on geography.
A delegation from the
DSA recently visited shipyards in Alang, India to see how some had upgraded
their facilities to comply with the Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling. The
DSA believes it is important that the market makes a distinction between those
yards which use beaching and comply with the Hong Kong convention and those
that do not.
GMS said it agrees and
also feels that owners who simply decide where to recycle ships based on
secondary (mis)information and geographical location do a disservice to their
stakeholders and the industry. Often these decisions are made on perceptions
rather than reality; political pressures rather than economic facts; irrational
exuberance rather than pragmatic evaluations, GMS said, adding that simply
throwing money does not make ship recycling green. On the contrary, it’s likely
to reward inefficiencies and “fear mongering,” according to GMS.
GMS has urged the
Norwegian Ship-owners Association (NSA) to take a look at the improvements that
have been made by some of the shipyards in Alang and has invited NSA members to
visit these in order to decide on beaching at specific yards as the DSA has
done.
Dr. Anil Sharma founder
and CEO of GMS said, “Yet again there is a lot of misinformation in the press
regarding beaching and the Hong Kong Convention. It has been implied in certain
trade press articles that the Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling bans
beaching and this is untrue. Many of the ship yards in Alang have made vast
improvements to comply with the Hong Kong Convention so declaring blanket bans
on beaching without viewing individual upgraded sites does nothing to encourage
other yards in the Asian sub-continent to improve their standards or persuade
governments in the region to ratify the Hong Kong Convention. It is also
interesting to note that negative stories or negative comments are generally
made by people who have either never visited the yards in India or not visited
them recently. On the other hand, those who have visited recently have made
positive comments such as the DSA and Japanese Shipowners Association. “
Source:
marine link. 25 August 2015
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