The application to the European Commission
comes a few months after the five yards won compliance certificates with a
separate global regime
 |
Five of the 167 ship-recycling yards located
on the coast of Alang-Sosiya in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, home to the
world’s largest stretch of ship breaking beaches, have applied to the EC to be
included in its list of approved facilities where ships flying the flag of a
European Union (EU) member state would be sent for dismantling at the end of
life. Photo: Reuters
|
The debate on the beaching method of ship
breaking could be settled by an application sent to the European Commission
(EC) by a handful of Indian ship-recycling yards.
Five of the 167 ship-recycling yards located
on the coast of Alang-Sosiya in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, home to the
world’s largest stretch of ship breaking beaches, have applied to the EC to be
included in its list of approved facilities where ships flying the flag of a
European Union (EU) member state would be sent for dismantling at the end of
life. The deadline for submitting applications closed on 30 June.
By December, the EC will draw up a list of
ship-recycling facilities that have demonstrated compliance with the
ship-recycling regulation published by the EU in 2013.
The application to the EC comes a few months
after these five yards—R L Kalthia Ship Breaking Pvt. Ltd, Priya Blue
Industries Pvt. Ltd, Leela Ship Recycling Pvt. Ltd, Shree Ram Group and Shubh
Arya Steel Pvt. Ltd—won compliance certificates with a separate global regime
that seeks to ensure that redundant ships are disposed of safely and in an
environmentally sound manner.
This was the first time such recognition has
been given to ship breakers in South Asia. It goes a long way in dispelling
doubts about the beaching method of breaking ships practised along a 10-km
stretch of Alang-Sosiya, often subject to criticism for its lax safety and
health rules, says experts.
Under the beaching method, ships are first
grounded and then dismantled, posing hazards to human beings and environment.
The Hong Kong International Convention for
the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships was adopted by the
International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2009. It is, however, yet come
into force because it has not been ratified by 15 states, representing 40% of
world merchant shipping by gross tonnage (capacity) and a maximum annual
ship-recycling volume not less than 3% of the combined tonnage of the states,
to take effect globally.
While the IMO convention does not prohibit
the dismantling of old ships by the beaching method, a separate ship-recycling
regulation published by the European Union in 2013 seeks to ban the method of
dismantling ships practised in Alang-Sosiya.
While the first four ship-recycling yards
were certified for compliance with IMO’s Hong Kong Convention by Japanese ship
classification society Class NK, Shubh Arya Steel was certified by the Italian
classification society RINA.
In order to be included in the European list,
compliance by a ship-recycling facility should be certified following a site
inspection by an independent verifier.
The first four ship recyclers have applied to
the EC with documents from IR Class Systems and Solutions Pvt. Ltd, an
independent verifier, certifying that they are in compliance with the
ship-recycling regulation of the EU.
Shubh Arya Steel’s application was supported
by a compliance certificate from RINA.
With environmental safety gaining prominence
in many aspects of trade and commerce, becoming a green ship-recycling yard has
its benefits. It will help them buy old ships for scrapping at lower rates because
of the limited number of facilities that are compliant with the IMO and EU
rules.
The application of the five Indian
ship-recyclers could also potentially create a dilemma for the EC.
The list of approved recyclers of the EC is
likely to include yards in China, Turkey, North America and the EU, but not
those in South Asia, though some of them in the region have upgraded facilities
to comply with the IMO regulation.
Seventeen more yards in Alang-Sosiya have now
been appraised and audited by Class Nk and RINA for certification of compliance
with the Hong Kong Convention of the IMO.
Many believe that ship recycling choice
shouldn’t be based just on geography and that the market must make a
distinction between yards which use beaching and comply with the Hong
Kong convention and those that do not.
“If the European Commission rejects our
applications, it has to give a proper justification why they are doing so. If
they are that stringent, their rules should not apply to yards in Turkey and
China also,” an executive with one of the five ship recycling yards said on
condition of anonymity.
In the run-up to the preparation of the list
of approved ship-recycling facilities that have demonstrated compliance with EU
rules, the EC is separately discussing a proposal to set up an EU
ship-recycling fund, which, if accepted, will compel ships, regardless of flag,
to pay for EU ship-recycling licences when calling at EU ports.
The money that visiting ships would have to
pay into a proposed EU fund, including those flying the flag of non-EU nations,
would only be returned at the end of the vessel’s working life, many years
later, when it will probably have a different owner and flag, and only on
condition that the ship is recycled at a yard approved by the EC, according to
the proposal.
This will undermine efforts by the IMO to
improve working and environmental conditions in developing nations, where most
ship-recycling yards are located and the proposal must be rejected, according
to The European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and the International
Chamber of Shipping (ICS)—which represent over 80% of world shipping tonnage.
ECSA and ICS argue the EU should concentrate
its efforts on getting EU member-states to ratify the IMO Hong Kong Convention,
and to recognize the efforts being made by recycling yards in Asia to gain
certification in accordance with IMO standards. They insist these yards should
be given a fair chance to be included in the EU list of approved recycling
facilities. The outcome of the applications submitted by the five Indian green
recyclers could settle the debate.
Source: live mint. 22 July 2016
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