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.
A fire broke out in the engine room on board a tanker, beached in Chittagong, on February 18, killing two workers. According to information, the two men died while scrapping the ship Greek Warrior at Shagorika Ship Breaking Yard. One of the men was burned and rushed to Chittagong Medical College Hospital, but he died before reaching the hospital. The body of the second man was discovered on board a few hours later.
According to new data released by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, on January 30, 744 large ocean-going commercial vessels were sold to the scrap yards in 2018. 518 out of these vessels, were broken down on tidal mudflats in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, amounting to a record-breaking 90,4% of the gross tonnage dismantled globally.
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.
In its quarterly update, NGO Shipbreaking Platform reported that a total of 113 ships were broken in the Q3 of 2018, and 79 of these ships were sold to the beaches of South Asia. Meanwhile, between July and September, three workers have lost their lives in shipbreaking in Alang, India.
Although the industry wants low-cost shipbreaking yards to be added to the EU approved facilities to meet demand from vessels bound by the bloc’s ship recycling law, a new report by NGOs Shipbreaking Platform and T&E shows the current EU list can accommodate the EU-flagged ships scrapped every year.
In its recently published figures for the second quarter of 2018, NGO Shipbreaking Platform informed that a total of 220 ships were dismantled, 169 of which were sold to South Asian recycling yards for ‘dirty and dangerous breaking’. Also in this period, a total of 8 deaths and 9 injuries were recorded in these yards.
Ahead of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation entering onto force from 31 December 2018, ECSA noted that the current edition of the EU list of approved ship recycling facilities only features yards situated in Europe and has a capacity of around 300.000 LDT, which is far away from the 2.5 million LDT mentioned in the Regulation.
On Monday, the EU member states’ experts on ship recycling met in Brussels to discuss the latest developments, six months ahead of the application of the 2013 Ship Recycling Regulation, with a special focus on China’s recent decision to stop the import of end-of-life ships for scrapping, which is expected to affect shipbreaking industry.
Pollutant and dangerous scrapping has been a key area of concern for Pakistani ship recycling industry. As in India and Bangladesh, the yards in Gadani operate directly on the beach, without any impermeable and drained working areas to protect the sea and sand from pollution.
