Tag: Hong Kong Convention

 ClassNK has issued Technical Information to provide information about the amendment of IMO's guidelines for the development of the Inventory of Hazardous Materials regarding the Ship Recycling Convention which it was deliberated in MEPC 68 (May 2015) and it was adopted as the Resolution MEPC 269 (68) The outline of the amendment is shown in the appendix to this technical information. The main contents are changes or clarifications on the threshold value of the hazardous materials to be indicated on the Material Declaration (MD) and on how to describe the inventory for the purpose of easier development of the inventory for new ship. Inventories which will be undertaken to develop after 15 May 2015(Note 1) are required to develop in compliance with the RESOLUTION MEPC.269 (68)ClassNK has reviewed its "Guidelines for the Inventory of Hazardous Materials" in order to implement the RESOLUTION MEPC.269 (68). The revised ClassNK "Guidelines for the Inventory of Hazardous Materials" can be downloaded from the ClassNK website. While, necessary improvements are being carried out on the system "PrimeShip-GREEN/SRM" and it will be available by 1 November 2015.ClassNK will treat the inventories for which the applications are made on or after 1 November 2015 as ones which are ...

 ​Officials from Bangladesh are in Turkey to learn from the country’s ship recycling sector (19-22 October), in a programme facilitated by IMO under the project dealing with the safe and environmentally sound ship recycling in Bangladesh (SENSREC).Hosted by the Government of Turkey in Ankara and Izmir, the visit consists of technical site visits, including waste management centres; a seminar including sessions on IMO’s ship recycling convention (Hong Kong Convention) and legislation issues; and meetings with ship recycling industry representatives.IMO is represented by Simone Leyers and a team of consultants.SENSREC Project, aimed at improving the safety and environmental standards within the country’s ship-recycling industry, consists of five work packages covering:• Two studies assessing the economic and environmental impact of the ship recycling industry in Bangladesh;• An assessment of the prevailing conditions and needs for environmentally sound hazardous waste management, including the compilation of a hazardous waste inventory, hazardous waste assessment report and the preliminary infrastructure design and site selection for a hazardous waste storage, treatment and disposal facility;• Recommendations on strengthening the government’s one-stop service, in which all the various ministries with a responsibility for ship recycling (e.g. industries, environment, labor, shipping) offer a single point of contact for related matters;• ...

 ECSA supports that all investments in recycling facilities should be rewarded, irrespective of geography and welcomes recent news that ClassNK issed Statements of Compliance to two ship recycling facilities in IndiaThe European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) welcomed the fact that the classification society ClassNK has issued statements of compliance to two ship recycling facilities in India and, thus, verified that the facilities are in line with the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009 (HKC) Commenting on the move, Patrick Verhoeven, ECSA Secretary General said: “It is extremely positive to see that Indian yards are taking an active approach to compliance with the international standards on safe and environmentally sound ship recycling even before the rules are implemented. ECSA firmly believes that such initiatives should be further encouraged, including by the European Commission. Hopefully, more companies will follow soon.”For the first time statements of compliance have been issued to ship recycling facilities, namely Kalthia Ship Breaking Pvt. Ltd. and Priya Blue Industries Pvt. Ltd, in South Asia. Class NK concluded that both yards carried out substantial improvements to their facilities in a bid toward safer and greener ship recycling as well as developed the ...

 ClassNK  has issued Statements of Compliance (SoC) to two ship recycling facilities in Gujarat, India, R. L. Kalthia Ship Breaking Pvt. Ltd. and Priya Blue Industries Pvt. Ltd. , verifying that the facilities are in line with the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009 (HKC). Although the HKC has yet to enter into force, Kalthia and Priya Blue have both carried out substantial improvements to their facilities in a bid toward safer and greener ship recycling as well as developed the Ship Recycling Facility Plans (SRFPs) required for a competent authority’s certification according to the HKC. ClassNK reviewed the SRFPs prepared by Kalthia and Priya Blue, which comply with requirements of the HKC, and confirmed that their ship recycling processes follow their respective SRFPs in addition to conducting on-site inspections before issuing the SoC. This marks the first time SoC have been issued to ship recycling facilities in South Asia. The SoC are issued based on purely technical verifications of the facilities by ClassNK, which has so far done the same for ship recycling facilities around the world. ClassNK will continue encouraging safe and environmentally sound ship recycling in accordance with the HKC through ...

 On 15 May 2015, IMO adopted “2015 Guidelines for the development of the inventory of hazardous materials”, to provide relevant stakeholders with recommendations for the development of a ship-specific Inventory of Hazardous Materials with a view to assist compliance with regulation 5 of the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009. The Guidelines as annexed to IMO resolution MEPC.269(68) can be found by clicking below Also read SAFETY4SEA Article -  New guidelines for Inventory of Hazardous MaterialsIn the start, I was explicit with you propecia before and after has changed my existence. It has become much more fun, and now I have to run. Just as it is incredible to sit.

 Ratification and compliance with the Hong Kong Convention is the best way to ensure sustainable recycling of vessels according to the Danish Shipowners’ Association, both in terms of safety and environmental impact.It is a natural part of a ship’s life cycle to be taken out of service for dismantling and recycling. Right now there is an ongoing debate of whether the “beaching” recycling method used in South Asia should be banned. The reason why the debate often flares up is that 60% of the world’s vessels are dismantled on the beaches of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh  and that these area in particular have been notorious for poor safety and environment conditions. In addition the requirements for the EU white list of yards based on the EU Ship Recycling Regulation risk to become an a priori exclusion of South Asian yards.But Alang is not just Alang – writes Director Maria Bruun Skipper, Danish Shipowners’ Association, in an article from Spring 2015, following a visit to Alang, India. The point is that we all have a responsibility to ensure that the recycling is done without compromising neither the health and safety of the workers nor the environment:“A couple of the yards we visited ...

 The Norwegian Shipowners’ Association says no to the beaching of end-of-life vessels – the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, welcomes this decision and calls on other ship owners and their associations to mirror the Norwegian position. In an op-ed published in Dagens Næringsliv, a daily business newspaper in Norway, the association’s CEO Sturla Henriksen writes that shipowners have a responsibility to ensure the safe and environmentally sound dismantling of their end-of-life fleet. The association further states on its website: “As an industry we can no longer defend that ships are broken in a way that puts health and the environment at risk. Therefore we say, as the first ship owners association in the world, no to the beaching of ships.” The Norwegian position against dangerous and polluting shipbreaking increases the demand for safe and green ship recycling capacity.“After more than ten years of campaigning for sustainable ship recycling, this is an important turning point. One of the shipping industry’s most important front runners now shares our position, namely that a ship owner’s responsibility expands over the whole life cycle of a ship beyond the sale for demolition, and that huge oceangoing vessels should not be run up on tidal beaches at the end of their operational life” said ...

  During the 29th World Ports Conference in Hamburg in early Juine 2015, IAPH adopted resolution on urging the ratification of the Hong Kong Convention as follows: Being aware that ship recycling isan essential process for maritimeindustry from the perspective of enhancing safety and efficiency which significance is even higher through the acceleration of fleet renewals which is taking place at the moment, Being further aware that the scrapping of the majority of ships is taking place in only a few states under dangerous and unhealthy working conditions and with affecting serious impact on maritime environment, Recognizing that in close cooperation with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Parties to the Basel Convention, the States in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted the Hong Kong Convention on May 15, 2009, intending to materialize safe and healthy working conditions for recycling workers with eliminating environmental impact from ship recycling, Recognizing further that the Hong Kong Convention imposes strict legislative requirements both to ship owners and recycling yards, Acknowledging that the Hong Kong Convention is left ineffective with getting only few ratifications, as many other states have concernsabout future capacities of ship recycling yards which are able to comply with the requirements ...

  GMS has called upon the European Commission to think carefully before banning beaching as an option for recycling European ships following the very positive study visits by a Japanese delegation and representatives from the Danish Shipping Association (DSA) to shipyards in Alang. The improvements made by some of the yards have led to a rise in standards to ensure compliance with the forthcoming Hong Kong Convention. The DSA is on record as saying in an article on its website that: “We consequently saw, among other things, workers wearing safety equipment and undergoing six-monthly routine medical check-ups. We also noted that the shipyards were engaged in operations such as asbestos handling, and regularly compiled reports from water and soil pollution tests etc. Finally, we were able to personally observe that three of the shipyards had laid a concrete base beneath the beach to stop seepage of harmful substances.”  A beaching ban by the European Commission will be counterproductive as it would discourage improvements in the ship recycling industries of South Asia. Firstly, it will mean that EU flagged ships will be able to be recycled only in Turkey and China. The Turkish recycling market has a finite capacity with only ...

  The Danish Shipowners' Association has visited the notorious Alang Beach in India, where large numbers of ships end their days. It would appear that positive developments are underway in some of the scrapping facilities. Breaking up a scrapped cargo ship, which can measure over one hundred meters in length and consist of several thousand tons of steel as well as a lot of other materials, is and will remain an operation that requires the right conditions. Maria Bruun Skipper, Director of the Danish Shipowners' Association (DR) recently visited Alang Beach in India, where over 40 percent of the world’s ships are dismantled. It is a place which has, rightly, been regularly subject to harsh international criticism for its lack of safety and environmental consideration, she says. Scrapping is performed at Alang by means of so-called beaching, in other words, the ship is simply run up onto the beach in order to be dismantled there. “We visited four of the 175 or so scrapping facilities in the area, which it has to be said is a very small proportion and therefore not representative of Alang Beach as a whole. The aim was not to give Alang as a whole the ...