Cash buyer GMS has said that the certification of two
Indian ship recycling yards as compliant with international shipbreaking
standards proves a ban on the beaching method would be
"short-sighted". In reference to the continuing debate over whether
the European Ship Recycling Regulation (EU SRR), which is applicable from 2018,
should include or ban beaching, Anil Sharma, founder and CEO of GMS, said the
certifications won by the yards from Japanese classification society ClassNK
this week prove beyond doubt that not all beaching is bad.
"GMS has argued
that declaring blanket bans on beaching without viewing individual upgraded
sites is short-sighted and these statements of compliance vindicate our
position," said Sharma.
Yesterday, ClassNK announced that the two yards -
both based in Alang in the western state of Gujarat and belonging to Kalthia
and Priya Blue Industries - comply with the technical standards of the Hong
Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling
of Ships 2009.
This regulation is currently only ratified by Norway, France,
and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and has yet to come into force.
Meanwhile, the EU SRR came into force on 30 December 2013 and will soon have a
list of recycling yards that are acceptable under this regulation appended to
it.
This list is due to be published by the end of 2016 and is widely expected
to exclude yards that practise the beaching method of shipbreaking.
GMS has
arranged trips to the Indian yards for Japanese industry and government
delegates and for the Danish Shipping Association so the officials "could
see for themselves the improvements being made by some of the more
forward-thinking ship recycling yards" and "make the important
distinction between yards that use beaching and comply with the Hong Kong
Convention on Ship Recycling and those that do not".
Sharma said he hoped
the compliance success of these two yards "will have a positive effect by
encouraging other yards in Alang and the rest of the Asian subcontinent to
follow suit and upgrade their facilities to achieve similar recognition".
Speaking to IHS Maritime earlier in the year, GMS warned that if beaching was
banned, Turkish recyclers could find themselves facing more demand than they
could cope with, as EU owners would be obliged to rely on them solely to
dispose of their old vesse
Source: IHS maritime.
01 October 2015
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