Tag: GMS

GMS announced the second Bangladeshi ship recycling yard as compliant with the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) guidelines for the Hong Kong Convention (HKC). Significant steps towards greener ship recycling practices in South Asia are being taken.

While the Hong Kong Convention has been a big step towards sustainable ship recycling, the EU regulation has slowed its adoption; a concern that should be dealt with the utmost urgency by all stakeholders, said ship buyer GMS.

PHP Family, a recycling yard located in Chittagong has become the first Bangladeshi yard to receive a Statement of Compliance under the Hong Kong Convention from international Classification Society RINA. Currently, there are over 45 recycling yards in Alang, India that have won such a green credit from international class societies, and another 15 yards working towards it.

ABS approved the design and certified the GMS cantilever system for its self-elevating support vessel GMS Evolution, delivered in May 2017. As an industry first, GMS Evolution is fitted with a small removable skidding cantilever system, installed with a well ‘work over unit’.

As ship recycling standards have increased across the sub continent, tanker owners need to adapt to the stricter requirements for cleaning vessels for hot works prior recycling, GMS has suggested. The number of fatal accidents on vessels, that were not cleaned thoroughly, should serve as a serious wake up call to tanker owners.

Ship recycling yards in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh need to be part of the global scheme of sound ship recycling and those yards in Alang which have invested in fully upgrading their facilities to meet the terms of internationally-agreed rules should be rewarded by winning more business. This was the view expressed by Akihiro Tamura, Director of Shipbuilding Policy at the Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro), shortly after returning from a fact finding trip to Indian recycling yards in Alang.  The four-day visit, arranged in association with cash buyer Global Marketing Systems (GMS), was attended by a 14 strong Japanese industry and government delegation, which included officials from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; the Japanese Shipowners Association; Jetro; shipping companies K-Line and JX Ocean; ClassNK; Japanese Labour Union;  Japan Marine Science; as well as GMS.  The delegation visited Alang with the intention of assessing the quality of beach recycling yards in the region.  Welcoming the comments from the visit, Nikos Mikelis, Non-executive Director of GMS, said it was up to the shipping industry and the regulators to see the improvement in conditions themselves. “We have already invited legislators from the European Commission, maritime administrations, IMO, as well ...

BIMCO has posted an article on its website written by Watchkeeper regarding the recent developments on ship recycling and the invitation to Europe by GMS to witness ship recycling procedures.  Recycling, shipbreaking, dismantling or scrapping – no matter how it is termed – is the inevitable end of just about every ship that is ever built. For obvious reasons it is an activity which has largely migrated to the developing world, in particular to the beaches and high tidal ranges of the sub-continent. It would be idle to pretend that it is an industry where industrial, developed world contemporary ideas of health, safety and the environment are to be found. Nevertheless, in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, large numbers of people are able to make a living from this activity, with almost all of the products from these redundant ships finding a further use, much of it in the region.  Many of those involved in this business are very conscious of the need to both improve safety and mitigate the effects upon the environment, although their efforts are necessarily incremental and constrained by resources. Speaking at a Capital Link CSR Forum in London, Dr. Nikos Mikelis, non-executive director of GMS, the ...

Global Marketing Systems, Inc (GMS) has challenged the European Commission’s intention to ban ship recycling by beaching, by inviting the Commission and a major representative group of top level shipping industry stakeholders to India to witness the ship recycling process first hand at one of the country’s best yards. Addressing a high-level industry conference in London, Dr Nikos Mikelis, non-executive Director of GMS, said ship recycling yards were improving in South East Asia and the best way to see this was to visit the yards in person. GMS also used the conference to call on Panama and the Marshall Islands to accede to the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships in order to satisfy calls by the International Chamber of Shipping and the European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) for a level playing field in global recycling. Ratification by these two large flags would speed up entry into force of the Convention. GMS said it would be willing to invite officials from EU Member States; experts on hazardous materials; representatives of ship owners or ship owner associations; the IMO Secretariat and the European Commission to see the improvements that have taken place in Indian recycling ...