According to new data released today by the
NGO Shipbreaking Platform, 835 large ocean-going commercial vessels were sold
to the scrap yards in 2017. 543 were broken down – by hand – on the tidal
beaches of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan: amounting to 80,3% of all tonnage
dismantled globally.
“The figures of 2017 are a sad testimony of
the shipping industry’s unwillingness to act responsibly. The reality is that
yards with infrastructure fit for the heavy and hazardous industry that ship
recycling is, and that can ensure safe working conditions and containment of
pollutants, are not being used by ship owners”, says Ingvild Jenssen, Founder
and Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. “It is particularly shameful
that so many European shipping companies scrap their vessels on beaches. Their
obvious lack of interest to ensure that shipbreaking workers around the world
enjoy best available technologies, and that the environment is equally
protected everywhere, clearly calls for additional pressure from authorities,
shipping clients and financers”, she adds.
The negative consequences of shipbreaking are
real and felt by many. On the one hand, workers – often exploited migrants and
some of them children – lose their life, suffer from injuries caused by fires,
falling steel plates and the general unsafe working conditions, as well as from
occupational diseases due to exposure to toxic fumes and materials. On the
other hand, coastal ecosystems, and the local communities depending on them,
are devastated by toxic spills and various pollutants leaking into the
environment as a result of breaking vessels on beaches.
Despite the terrible accident that shook the
international shipbreaking community in 2016, no lesson has been learned in
Pakistan. In 2017, at least 10 workers lost their lives at the shipbreaking
yards on the beach of Gadani. The Platform documented 15 deaths in the
Bangladeshi yards last year, where also at least another 22 workers were
seriously injured. Whilst international and local NGOs were repeatedly denied
access to the Indian shipbreaking yards, the Platform was informed of at least
eight fatal accidents in Alang in 2017.
DUMPERS 2017 – Worst practices
As in 2016, GERMANY and GREECE top the list
of country dumpers in 2017. German owners, including banks and ship funds,
beached 50 vessels out of a total of 53 sold for demolition. Greek owners were
responsible for the highest absolute number of ships sold to South Asian
shipbreaking yards in 2017: 51 ships in total. Since the Platform’s first
compilation of data in 2009, Greek shipping companies have unceasingly topped
the list of owners that opt for dirty and dangerous shipbreaking.
Despite increased pressure for safe and clean
ship recycling from Norwegian investors and authorities, in 2017, the number of
Norwegian-owned ships scrapped on the beach was on the rise: 18 ended up in
Alang, Gadani and Chittagong. The attempted illegal export of the TIDE CARRIER
to Pakistan was stopped by Norwegian authorities following an alert by the
Platform.
“In light of increased pressure from Scandinavian
banks and investors, including Norwegian pension funds KLP and NBIM, and
ongoing criminal investigations against the owners of TIDE CARRIER, Norwegian
ship owners will have to ask themselves whether dirty profits are worth the
reputational and financial risk that using beaching facilities now entails.
Also, Danish container-giant Maersk will have an increasingly hard time
justifying its U-turn back to the beach in Alang, as the yards there will not
make it on the EU list of approved ship recycling facilities [1]”, comments
Ingvild Jenssen.
The worst corporate dumper prize goes to
Continental Investment Holdings (CIH), the Singapore-headquartered shipowning
arm of Myanmar shipowner Captain U Ko Ko Htoo and parent company of Continental
Shipping Line. The company, which is currently changing the composition of its
fleet, sold 9 ships for breaking on the beaches in 2017. Four vessels ended up
in Bangladesh, where in late December, during the demolition of CIH’s TAUNG GYI
STAR, a worker died hit by a falling iron plate.
Ranked at second place, the container
shipping giant Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) sold 7 vessels to Indian
breakers. In the last nine years, MSC has profited from the sale of more than
seventy ships for dirty and dangerous scrapping in Alang.
The Japanese owner Mitsui OSK Lines and the
UK-based Zodiac Group follow closely with respectively 6 and 5 ships sold to
South Asian yards. Zodiac received the worst dumper award in 2016 and sold 4
vessels to the yards in Chittagong despite being under scrutiny after a
Bangladeshi worker sought compensation from the company for injuries incurred
when breaking the EURUS LONDON.
Other known companies that in 2017 opted for
substandard yards, rather than recycling their ships in a safe and clean
manner, include: Hanjin Shipping, Hansa Mare Reederei, Peter Dohle Schiffahrts,
Rickmers Reederei, Hansa Treuhand, Berge Bulk, Costamare, Quantum Pacific Group
and Teekay. Teekay had promised to never sell to beaching yards again after a
worker died breaking the ASPIRE in 2014 in Chittagong. That Berge Bulk was
under the spotlight in December 2016, when it was feared that the Berge Stahl
would end up on a beach, did not prevent the company from selling another 5
ships for dirty and dangerous breaking in 2017.
With the oil and gas sector seeing a downturn
in the last couple of years, the Platform has documented an increase in
offshore units that have gone for scrap. Out of the 91 units which have been
identified as demolished in the last three years combined, 41 of them ended up
on the beaches of South Asia after being towed for thousands of kilometers
across the globe. Three floating platforms cold-stacked in Scotland that were
sold by Diamond Offshore for scrap in 2017, allegedly to cash buyer GMS, were stopped
from leaving following an alert by the Platform on their highly likely illegal
export. “Fixed platforms cannot easily escape decommissioning rules, whereas we
have seen that nearly half of all floating units slip under the radar and end
up on beaches – this double standard has to stop”, states Francesca Carlsson,
Corporate Liaison and Policy Officer of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
All vessels sold to the beaching yards pass
through the hands of scrap dealers known as cash buyers. In this way, ship owners
attempt to shield themselves from responsibility, and are paid upfront the
highest market price in cash for their end-of-life vessels by the dealers. To
reduce costs and to exploit the loopholes in international legislation, cash
buyers will change a vessel’s flag to one of the typical last-voyage flags of
convenience, such as Comoros, Palau and St Kitts and Nevis. Cash buyers will
also register the vessel under a new name and a new post box company, rendering
it very difficult for authorities to trace and hold cash buyers and ship owners
accountable for illicit business practices.
“Ship-owning companies that stand by their
corporate social responsibility directly sign contracts with ship recycling
facilities they have inspected and found adequate. Choosing to sell a ship to a
facility which is on the EU list of approved yards is the easiest way for a
ship owner to be assured that there has been a quality check. Fortunately, it
is becoming increasingly difficult for ship owners to simply blame the cash
buyer: investors and authorities are expecting ship owners to control the
choice of the recycling yard, and expect that choice to be a yard that does not
endanger workers and the environment [2]”, says Carlsson.
* The data gathered by the NGO Shipbreaking
Platform is sourced from different outlets and stakeholders, and is
cross-checked whenever possible. The data upon which this information is based
is correct to the best of the Platform’s knowledge, and the Platform takes no
responsibility for the accuracy of the information provided. The Platform will
correct or complete data if any inaccuracy is signaled. All data which has been
provided is publicly available and does not reveal any confidential business
information.
Source:
hellenic
shipping news. 21 February 2018
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