There were a total of 181 ships broken in the first quarter of 2019, according to figures released by NGO Shipbreaking Platform. Of these, 142 ships were sold to the beaches of South Asia. Meanwhile, between January and March, three workers lost their lives and four were severely injured in Bangladesh.
BIMCO issued a report according to which only 9 out of 26 shipyards on the EU list of approved recycling facilities are realistically open for ship recycling. From the 26 shipyards, only 3 are in the position of recycling a large ship, as a Panamax-sized vessels or even larger.
‘Star Gran’, a cargo vessel that belongs to Grieg Star, is the first vessel in the company to be sent for recycling, under the new EU recycling regulations. According to the Norwegian shipping company, the vessel began the recycling at Leyal Ship Recycling Group in Turkey, on February 20.
German dry bulk shipping operator Oldendorff Carriers said it has entered into an agreement with GSR Services and Korean Register (KR) for the development and certification of Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) for their fleet for meeting tight EU ship recycling regulation.
At the Global Maritime Forum’s Annual Summit last October, the Sustainable Shipping Initiative sat down with industry leaders to discuss the challenges and opportunities in shipping, explains Mr. Andrew Stephens, Executive Director, SSI and Nicole Rencoret, Head of Communications and Development, SSI.
The Dutch court has imposed a fine of 780.000 EUR to the Dutch ship owner Holland Maas Scheepvaart Beheer II BV for having beached a ship for scrapping in India. The company also paid a settlement of 2.2 million EUR, totaling to a price tag of almost 3 million EUR.
2019 kicked off with the data collection on fuel oil consumption, alternative mechanisms to comply with the 2020 Sulphur cap, the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, the IMSBC Code 2017 amendment as well as amendments designating North Sea and Baltic Sea as ECAs. With many more regulations and developments still yet to come, nations from all across the globe, ship operators and crew are going through a key period because of ten major issues that will have significant impact over the next ten years in the shipping industry.
Normally, when a ship is recycled in an environmentally friendly way, the workers conducting the job must wear protective clothing, helmets and safety glasses. They should also use oxy-fuel torches to cut through the thick steal piece by piece down to the keel area of the ship. Nevertheless, ships are often disassembled on beaches by people who such clothing or take any other safety measures, Hapag Lloyd notes.
Rohit Agarwal, Partner at GSR Sentinels LLP, provides his opinion on EU’s regulation for ship recycling (EU SRR). Mr. Agarwal believes that there will be no European VLCCs or large ocean going ship that will be scrapped in Europe in 2019. This will come despite EU efforts to make European shipowners recycle their vessels in the continent.
The European Commission published its 4th version of European List of ship recycling facilities, including six new yards. In these we find the first yards outside the EU which were approved. Namely, 2 are in Turkey and 1 is in the US. ECSA welcomed the decision, but said that more work is on the table.
