The
European Commission recently published its first edition of the E.U. list of
approved ship recycling facilities. At this stage, it only features yards
situated in Europe and reaches under 30 percent of the E.U.’s own recycling
capacity target. For the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA), this demonstrates clearly that yards outside Europe should get E.U. recognition
to raise standards worldwide and respond to demand.
The
first edition of the European list of ship recycling facilities includes 18
European recycling yards that are deemed safe for workers and environmentally
sound, in accordance with the relevant requirements of the 2013 E.U. Ship
Recycling Regulation. The Commission received applications from yards in other
countries as well but these applications are still being reviewed. Site
inspections will be conducted to check their credentials followed by a decision
in 2017 on their inclusion in the list.
“Whilst
the E.U. list can serve to raise ship recycling standards worldwide and respond
to recycling demand, the current list clearly shows the need to include third
country yards and especially those that already meet the international
standards laid down in the Hong Kong Convention for safe and environmentally
sound ship recycling,” said Patrick Verhoeven, ECSA Secretary General.
The
IMO Hong Kong Convention has already a profound impact on the ground as
recycling yards have taken action to comply with its measures, even when the
Convention itself is not yet in force, he says. This is notably the case for a
number of yards in Alang, India. Giving these yards E.U. recognition will
encourage others to raise their standards and apply for inclusion as well.
It
will furthermore ensure sufficient and adequate capacity on the E.U. list, not
just in terms of volume, but also in terms of the size of ships that can be
dismantled, says Verhoeven. In turn, this will facilitate a swift entry into
force of the Hong Kong Convention, creating a flag neutral level playing field
in the global ship recycling market.
“Approximately
150 container vessels were sent for recycling in 2016, the current E.U. list
would cater for only 16 smaller container vessels, taking into consideration
limitation of E.U. yards in terms of length and vessel draft. And that is just
for one type of vessels. We thus strongly encourage the Commission to enlarge
the list to non-E.U. facilities as soon as possible,” said Verhoeven.
All vessels sailing under an E.U. flag will
be required to use an approved ship recycling facility once the E.U. Ship
Recycling Regulation effectively applies. This will either be six months after
the date that the combined maximum annual ship recycling output of the ship
recycling facilities included in the European list constitutes not less than
2.5 million light displacement tons (LDT) or on December 31, 2018, whichever
date occurs first.
Source:
maritime-executive.
15 January 2017
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