Brussels,
3 February 2014 – The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a global coalition of
organisations seeking to prevent dirty and dangerous shipbreaking practices
worldwide, today published the complete list of ships that were dismantled
around in the world in 2013. Of the 1213
large ocean-going vessels that were scrapped in 2013, 645 were sold to
substandard beaching facilities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh [1].
Approximately 40% of these ships were EU-owned.
The new EU regulation on ship recycling entered into force on 30
December 2013. However, unless an economic incentive is added to it, the
registration of European ships under flags of convenience will allow ship
owners to sail around the new regulation and continue dumping their toxic ships
in substandard facilities.
End-of-life
vessels contain toxic materials such as asbestos, heavy metals, PCBs and
organic waste within their structures. South Asia has become a preferred
dumping ground as environmental, safety and labour rights standards are poorly
enforced there. Ship owners are able to
sell their ships to the beach breakers for considerably greater profit than if
they were sold to clean and safe recycling facilities.
“Whereas
the number of dismantled ships remained nearly as high as in 2012, the number
of beached ships dropped from 850 to 645 in 2013, representing a reduction of
24% from the previous year. More ship owners have opted for cleaner and safer
solutions in 2013 compared to previous years – this is good news for the
environment and the workers, and also for those ship recycling yards globally
that have invested in better practices”, says Patrizia Heidegger, Executive
Director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform. “Still, the majority of ship owners
uphold their dirty practices and European owners are amongst the worst.”
European
ship owners sold a total of 372 large commercial vessels for breaking last
year, of which 238, almost two thirds, ended up on a South Asian beach. Greece
remains the worst European toxic ship dumper, closely followed by Germany.
Owners in these countries disposed a record-high 80 percent of their
end-of-life ships in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and included well-known
companies such as Danaos and Euroseas (Greece), and Conti, Hapag-Lloyd and
Leonhardt & Blumberg (Germany). Comparatively, Japanese owners sent 43% of
their ships to South Asia, whilst Chinese owners in vast majority opted for
nationally available ship recycling capacity [2]. Other European companies that
have recurrently topped the lists of worst dumpers include Switzerland-based
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), with 9 ships dumped in India in 2013, and
the Monaco-based Sammy Ofer Group, with 13 ships dumped in Bangladesh, Pakistan
and India.
Once
applicable, the new EU ship recycling regulation will ban the breaking of ships
registered under the flag of an EU Member State in beaching yards and demand
proper recycling in facilities that meet the requirements set out in the
Regulation. However, the Regulation runs the risk of becoming a paper tiger:
more than two thirds of the European ships dismantled in 2013 did not sail
under the flag of an EU Member State when heading for a dismantling yard and
would therefore not have been covered by the new Regulation. In addition to the
ships already sailing under non-European flags during operational use, another
55 ships were flagged out from European registries just before scrapping
outside the EU. Flags of convenience such as Comoros, Tuvalu, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, Togo and Sierra Leone, that are less favoured during operational use,
were excessively popular flags for the end-of-life vessels broken on beaches in
2013.
“Reflagging
has always been a convenient way for ship owners to circumvent rules enforced
by the flag states. The Platform and its members have been calling upon the EU
to introduce an economic incentive to promote clean and safe ship recycling,
because a Regulation based only on the voluntary registration under a European
flag will not have the promised impact”, says Patrizia Heidegger.
Responsible
European ship owners have meanwhile developed ship recycling policies. The
Danish Maersk group, the world’s largest containership owner, was amongst the
first to have an ambitious ship recycling policy and has so far lived up to it
for those ships registered under its name. However, Maersk sold off three ships
to Greek owner Diana Shipping and chartered the vessels back: all three were
beached in 2013. The sale of old ships to a new owner while continuing to be
the operator is a common way of avoiding responsibility at end-of-life, and it
weakens Maersk’s efforts to be a global leader in green ship recycling. Best
practice examples are Norwegian ship owners Grieg and Höegh Autoliners, who
have proven to be serious about their environmental policies and have not
beached vessels in 2013. Canada Steamship Lines (CSL) and Royal Dutch Boskalis
went one step further and had their ships recycled within OECD countries only.
Dutch company Van Oord, active in the dredging and offshore industry, has
recently stated they will no longer beach any of their ships.
CONTACT
Patrizia
Heidegger
Executive
Director
+32
2 609 9419
patrizia@shipbreakingplatform.org
Ingvild
Jenssen
Policy
Advisor
+32
2 609 9420
ingvild@shipbreakingplatform.org
NOTES
[1]
Ships are broken in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India on tidal beaches whose soft
sands cannot support crucial safety measures such as heavy lifting or emergency
response equipment and which allow pollution to seep directly into the coastal
zone environment. No country in the developed world allows ships to be broken
on their beaches. While shipbreaking can be done in a safe and clean way with
proper technologies and infrastructure, and enforced regulations, most
ship-owners choose to sell their ships for significantly greater profit to
substandard yards operating in countries without adequate resources to provide
safeguards and infrastructure to manage the dangerous business. On the South
Asian shipbreaking beaches, vulnerable migrant workers, many of them children,
break apart massive and toxic ships by hand, often without shoes, gloves, hard
hats or masks to protect their lungs from asbestos and poison fumes. The
International Labour Organization (ILO) considers shipbreaking on beaches to be
among the world’s most dangerous jobs. It is also important to note that not
all ships sold to modern ship recycling facilities were necessarily demolished
in a safe and environmentally sound way. Beyond technology, a hazardous
industry requires expertise and training, tight controls by the authorities,
transparency and traceability of waste as well as independent trade unions.
[2]
In 2013, China launched a three-year cash subsidy program for scrapping cargo
ships and tankers. Chinese ship operators will receive a cash subsidy of 750
Yuan (91 euro) per gross ton for scrapping an older ship.
Source: Shipbreaking Platform.
