Iron Crows: Spare a Thought

Titled ”Iron Crows”, this 90 minute documentary examines the harsh conditions that workers in the Chittagong ship breaking yard in Bangladesh are subjected to. The average pay is US$2 a day and on average 20 workers die in the Chittagong yards every year while dismantling ships from all over the world.

The trailer is high-quality thus view the astounding scenes in full screen mode………………and spare a thought for the poor souls working there dismantling vessels that once serviced our requirements.

The YouTube link to the trailer is: http://youtu.be/n31OKLSO69k

Source: Maritime Security Review. By Mark Lowe.  26 August 2011

http://www.marsecreview.com/2011/08/spare-a-thought/

Depreciating Rupee makes mark on the steel scrap price levels:

In its first move after the mayhem in Indian Rupee v/s USD shipbreaking scrap market made a quantum jump by INR 1000 per tonne. In a sulking shipbreaking scrap market which delved in ambiguity oscillating between the availability and currency valuation it was major break.

However a definite trend would be premature depending on the downstream demand and trader’s confidence in taking positions in a dicey market.

Melting scrap

80:20

HMS

Location – Change

Mumbai - 0

Chennai – 0

Kolkata - 0

Mandi – 0

Kandla – 1000

Kanpur - 0

Rudrapur - 0

Hyderabad – 0

Ludhiana – (-)181

Bangalore - 0

Change is on May 14th as compared to 11th May 2012

(In INR per tonne)

To know more details on steel prices subscribe to services of www.steelprices-india.com by registering or send a mail to admin@steelprices-india.com with contact details Kindly note that this is a paid service.

Source: Steel Guru. 15 May 2012

http://www.steelguru.com/indian_news/Depreciating_Rupee_makes_mark_on_the_steel_scrap_price_levels/263756.html

Follow-up on EJOLT REPORT 1 – shipbreaking:

While 4 ejolt reports are in the pipeline for publication in the coming 2 months, our work does not end with the publication of a report. We gave 15 copies of the EJOLT report containing the results of Federico Demaria’s research on the shipbreaking yards of Alang to the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a Brussels-based coalition of human rights, labour rights and environmental organisations working on the shipbreaking issue. The Platform is currently involved in the process of responding to the European Commission proposal on ship recycling, published in March 2012. They’ve been meeting with representatives from the European Parliament, the European Council (Danish presidency) and the Economic and Social Committee. Ingvild Jenssen, Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform: ‘the EJOLT report is proving very useful in that it sheds light on the situation in India.’

Meanwhile, Indian activist are doing their part of the struggle for environmental justice in the case of shipbreaking. According to the ToxicsWatch Alliance, 5924 end-of-life ships have been beached for dismantling in Alang. There are no data on the amount of hazardous wastes that has been dumped but many ships, like the ‘Oriental Nicety’, contain a lot of toxics. ToxicsWatch filed a Writ Petition (Civil) at the Supreme Court demanding that no end-of-life ship should be allowed without prior decontamination in the country of export as the same court ordered on October 14, 2003. Since May 3, the Supreme Court is handling the case.

And it’s not just dangers from toxics that the workers face. On May 2, a worker on the ship-breaking yard at Chittagong died when a heavy door crushed him. In the last 44 months, at least 38 workers died at shipbreaking yards. It should be clear that those who send the ships to these yards have some responsibility in all this. Only 1% of all ships are dismantled in Europe, 2% in the US but 44% are dismantled in India and 17% in Bangladesh. While 90% of international trade goes through ships, it is obvious who is bearing the heavy cost at the end of the lifecycle. This environmental justice needs to be addressed by implementing two interconnected steps:

1) It is technically feasible to have a proper if more expensive dismantling operation (as in Europe). There are in fact many guidelines (Basel Convention, 2002; IMO, 2003; ILO 2004). They are simply not implemented. Action through the Indian Supreme Court to implement them has to be supported.

2) Ship owners could pay a deposit (or guarantee) throughout the ship life to be spent for proper dismantling, established as a requirement for allowing entrance at any harbour. This could allow investments to take the activity off the beach because dry docks operations potentially offer better labour and environmental standards.

EJOLT is planning further steps to use the resources we developped in working towards these goals. As soon as we have new developments we will keep you updated.

Source: Ejolt. By Nick. 4 May 2012

http://www.ejolt.org/2012/05/follow-up-on-ejolt-report-1-shipbreaking/

What Happens After Abandoning Ship?

23 years after running aground on a reef in Alaska and causing one of the largest spills in U.S. history, the tanker Exxon Valdez is back in the news—this time to keep it from being intentionally grounded on a beach in India.

The Indian Supreme Court has ruled that the Exxon Valdez (now called the Oriental Nicety) cannot be grounded and cut apart on the shores of Gujarat until it can be cleaned of residual oils and other contaminants.

What’s known as “shipbreaking” is a dirty business, and many of the world’s tired and obsolete vessels end up being grounded on beaches in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan and cut apart for scrap steel.

In recent years the business of ship scrapping has become a major health and environmental concern. Many shipbreaking yards in these developing countries have little or no safety equipment or environmental protections, and toxic materials from these ships, including oils, heavy metals, and asbestos, escape into the environment.

Obsolete vessels and ship scrapping can also be a problem here in the U.S. Last year, the 431-foot S/S Davy Crockett made the news down on the Columbia River near Vancouver, Wash.

Mysterious oil sheens on the river were traced upriver to the former Navy Liberty ship that had begun leaking oil due to improper and unpermitted salvage operations.

Next week I will be at the Clean Pacific Conference in Long Beach, Calif., and presenting information on the challenges of dealing with abandoned and derelict vessels in the U.S. I know that the Davy Crockett and the issues it raised will come up.

Vessels are abandoned for all sorts of reasons, including storms (particularly hurricanes/typhoons which may damage large numbers of boats), community-wide economic stress or change (e.g., declining commercial fishing industries), and financial or legal issues of individual owners.  The high cost of proper vessel disposal can lead some folks to just walk away.

Hopefully we can help improve how we respond to these vessels and increase prevention programs to prevent abandonment. If you are interested in this issue, there is more information on NOAA’s Abandoned Vessel Program.

Source: 11 May 2012

http://usresponserestoration.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/what-happens-after-abandoning-ship/

Shipbreaking: The European Union surrenders

The European Union continues to show interest for the conditions of shipbreaking. After the ‘’Green Paper on Better Ship Dismantling’’ from the European Commission in 2007, the European Parliament resolution on “the European strategy for better ship dismantling” in 2009 and a series of meetings between all parties interested about the end of a ship’s life, the Commission just proposed new regulation on ship demolition, to be discussed at the next Parliament and European Council meetings. In the first place, meetings will be about “requiring member-States to ratify the Hong Kong convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships”. Signed in 2009, the convention has not at this time been ratified by any of the IMO members and will be archaic when it goes into effect.

During this long wait, the transitional european regulation must secure the interim. The European Union put their ambition on hold. Yesterday it envisioned the anticipated application of the Hong Kong convention or even an enlargement of its constraints; today, it is just about to designate the dismantling sites fulfilling the convention requirements and take into account the measures of demolition preparation such as the inventory of hazardous materials and the recycling plan. Even though the actual European regulation forbids a minima, but without success, export to a non-OCDE country, the opportunity to dismantle in a distant facility provided that it be included in the European list is considered a satisfying issue to the penury of European sites…But is it the penury of sites in Europe that oblige European ship owners to export, or the exportation that holds back the emergence of such an industry in Europe?

Only the ships flying the flag of a member-State of the European Union are concerned by the regulation. The notion once put before the Commission of ‘’Ships with strong links to Europe’’ has been whisked away. The carrying out of this regulation showed itself useless. Close to 40% of ships that left to be demolished belonged to a European ship owner, but only 13% sail under European colors. A dissuasive measure is targeted at shipowners who send their ships to sites not agreed upon. Article 23 of the regulation project previews sanctions of which the amount is not defined : ‘Where a ship is sold and, within less than 6 months after the selling, is sent for recycling in a facility which is not included in the European list, the penalties shall be:

a) jointly imposed to the last and penultimate owner if the ship is still flying the flag of an European Member State;

b) only imposed to the penultimate owner if a ship is not flying anymore the flag of an European Member State.’’

This tortuous article 23 applied to the world’s oceans will be easily bypassed by dropping anchor for more than 6 months in a remote bay, by sales to ephemeral ghost companies, and transfers under specialized flags like Tuvalu, Mongolia, Comoros, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Togo, Moldavia…

Source: Robin Des Bois. 7 May 2012

http://www.robindesbois.org/english/shipbreaking/shipbreaking27.pdf