The European Community Shipowners'
Associations, ECSA, has voiced fierce criticism toward the EU's list of
approved ship recycling facilities. But the association is now taking a more
positive stance, viewing the list as a means that can help ensure implementation
of the Hong Kong convention.
The ECSA, European Community Shipowners'
Association, has been highly critical of the EU's list of shipbreaking
facilities approved for scrapping EU-flagged vessels.
The shipowners have especially stressed the
importance of not distorting competition between European and international
shipowners, the latter of which are free to use facilities not cleared by the
EU when scrapping vessels. Furthermore, there is far from sufficient capacity
at the European facilities to handle the many ships which are expected to face
scrapping in the coming years, the ECSA has warned. But now the association
says that the EU list is not all bad for the carriers. In fact, it could help
speed up the ratification of the shipowners' preferred directive, the global
Hong Kong convention. "The EU list is a tool that can help push the
ratification of the Hong Kong convention through. And for this, we need the EU
to take into account the improvements which several yards in Alang have
achieved," Benoit Loicq, head of safety and the environment at ECSA, tells
ShippingWatch. Scrapping driven by money Including these yards on the EU list
will serve as leverage to get the full IMO shipbreaking convention – the Hong
Kong convention – settled. This should happen, even though critics point out
that the conditions at the shipyards on the highly controversial scrapping
beach Alang are still a far cry from the EU's standards, though several yards
here have been certified according to the Hong Kong standards.
"It's really very positive what's
happening in Alang. Of course there's room for improvement, but the yards are
working on it and they should be cleared for the list," says Benoit Loicq:
"The idea is also to show the yards at Alang which have yet to upgrade
their facilities and apply for inclusion on the EU list that it pays to make
the improvements. Commercial interests are also part of the shipbreaking
market, and I believe that this should be taken into account as well. I view
this as a transition period, and that we should take advantage of this period
and help out in terms of inclusion on the EU list as well as ratification of
the Hong Kong convention." Reply to non-EU facilities this year The EU
Commission published its list of approved EU-based shipbreaking facilities just
before Christmas, which features a total of 18 approved yards. Applications
from non-EU shipyards have yet to be processed, but the EU Commission informed
that 18 shipyards located outside of Europe have applied for inclusion on the
list. These yards are expected to receive response during 2017. The debate
concerning scrapping on, especially, beaches in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan
has raged among shipowners, yards, authorities, and NGOs throughout 2016. The
debate was largely triggered by Maersk's decision to scrap several container
ships at a facility in Alang in India. The intensity of the stems from the fact
that yards in Alang and elsewhere rely on beaching, in which vessels are sailed
up onto the beach and are dismantled in the tidal zone, a process which has
historically resulted in many deaths among workers and polluted the
environment. ECSA recently published numbers showing how little yard capacity
the EU-approved facilities represent. "Approximately 150 container vessels
were sent for recycling in 2016, the current EU list would cater for only 16
smaller container vessels, taking into consideration limitation of EU 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-EU facilities
as soon as possible," said ECSA Secretary General Patrick Verhoeven
earlier in January.
Source:
shipping
watch.
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