The announcement by the poster boy of
container shipping to use its leverage to create responsible ship recycling
options is music to ears of Alang ship breakers
Maersk Line, the world’s biggest
container shipowner, is steering the debate on responsible ship recycling to a
different course by announcing last week its “commitment to help selected ship
recycling yards in Alang upgrade facilities and practices to comply with the
company’s standards”.
The announcement by the poster boy of
container shipping to use its leverage to create more responsible ship
recycling options is music to the ears of ship breakers along a 10-km stretch
of beach at Alang in Gujarat state’s Bhavnagar district. The work practices
followed on the beaches of Alang—the world’s largest stretch of ship breaking
beaches—have often been vilified for its negative human rights impacts and
environmental degradation, including child labour, frequent fatalities,
inadequate working and living conditions, lack of access to hospitals and
proper waste facilities.
Out of the 768 ships recycled globally
in 2015, 469—representing 74% of the total gross tonnage (capacity)
scrapped—were sold to facilities on beaches in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Critics of Maersk such as
non-governmental organization Shipbreaking Platform have dubbed the company’s
decision to recycle its end-of-life ships in Alang as “rubberstamping practices
that they previously denounced to boost profits in times of low freight rates”.
Since 2009, Maersk Group, which owns
Maersk Line, has been pursuing a policy of recycling ships responsibly.
Responsible recycling, however, is only feasible in a limited number of yards
in China and Turkey. Besides, on average, using one of these yards has an added
cost of $1-2 million per recycled vessel, says Annette Stube, head of
sustainability at Maersk Group.
The number of vessels up for recycling
by Maersk Group has been limited for the past decade; but in the next five
years, a larger number of ships owned by the group will reach the end of their
life. Using only responsible recycling facilities is estimated to incur extra
costs of more than $150 million, compared with using upgraded facilities in
India, according to Stube.
With more vessels to recycle, the
current cost of sustainable ship recycling is not feasible for Maersk as it
looks to shore up its profitability. It is clear that with an ageing fleet,
Maersk needs more options to recycle ships cost-efficiently and responsibly.
Regulatory developments are further putting pressure on the industry to push
for global availability of responsible practices.
Responsible and sustainable ship
recycling was intensely debated by the global shipping industry for many years,
culminating in the adoption of the Hong Kong International Convention for the
Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships by the International Maritime
Organization (IMO) in 2009.
Four year later, in 2013, the European
Union published its own regulation on ship recycling.
While the IMO’s Hong Kong convention
does not prohibit dismantling of redundant ships by the beaching method
practised in Alang, the EU regulations have banned this practice.
Under the beaching method, ships are
first grounded and then broken in an unprotected marine environment. Critics
say this method is polluting and unsafe for workers.
The Hong Kong convention is yet to
come into force because it has not been ratified by at least 15 states,
representing 40% of world merchant shipping by gross tonnage (capacity), to
take effect globally.
The requirements of the EU ship
recycling regulation will be phased in between now and December 2020.
A key aspect of the EU regime is the
development of a list of ship recycling facilities that are compliant with its
standards. Once this is compiled by December this year, ships flying the flag
of an EU member-state will only be sold for recycling to facilities that are
included in the list.
European fleet owners such as Maersk
fear that the EU regulations would deprive them of adequate, responsible
facilities, fetching lower prices while selling their old ships.
Steady improvements in conditions have
been witnessed in Alang over the last two years. Four of the 167 recycling
facilities located there are now certified to the standards of the Hong Kong
Convention.
These four recycling facilities—Priya
Blue Industries Pvt. Ltd, RL Kalthia Ship Breaking Pvt. Ltd, Leela Ship
Recycling Pvt. Ltd and Shree Ram Group—do not comply with the EU regulations.
Recyclers such as RL Kalthia say it
will work towards compliance with the EU regulations by filling the gaps, “if
possible, within the method used for ship recycling in India (read beaching)”.
Following a couple of visits to the
four IMO-certified ship recycling facilities in 2015, the Maersk Group
concluded that responsible recycling can be accelerated in the area.
Maersk’s decision to look at Alang for
its ship recycling needs is seen as an endorsement of the beaching method
banned by the EU, without being “irresponsible,” by suitably upgrading
facilities and practices that comply with the standards set by the company. The
decision, though, could be a bit of an embarrassment for the EU, given Maersk’s
European roots.
And, Maersk is not hiding its views
behind the niceties even while reiterating its policy to “only recycle ships
responsibly”.
The group says its goal is “to make
more responsible ship recycling facilities available, regardless of location
and method applied” by developing a standard that combines the Hong Kong
convention and demands of the group’s third-party code of conduct on
anti-corruption, labour, human rights and sub-contractor matters. Maersk is,
however, silent on the EU regulation in its pursuit of this goal.
Maersk says it will not only work
directly with the four IMO-compliant ship recyclers to upgrade their practices
to comply with its standards, but also engage a broader coalition of shipowners
to help upgrade a larger Alang area to get better waste facilities, hospitals
and a general upgrade of all the facilities on the beach. The more shipowners
that commit to engaging over this issue, the greater the leverage for change,
says Stube. This could well be the road to redemption for Alang.
Source: live mint. 19 February 2016
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