Tag: Pakistan

Pakistan has approved the establishment of a ship-breaking yard in Gwadar, local media report. Namely, a policy board will decide about the land allocation and the completion of the ship-breaking yard, which would provide many employment opportunities.

Gadani shipbreaking beach recently experienced two fire incidents. On 11 October a tanker caught fire, with no injuries reported. However, on 14 October, another oil tanker caught fire, injuring seven workers. These incidents made the Balochistan Environmental Protection Agency ban all shipbreaking activities in Gadani.

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.

Seven workers sustained severe burn injuries after a non-functional ship caught fire in Gadani ship-breaking yard, Pakistan, on Sunday. Three of the inured men are considered to be in critical situation. The incident took place while cutting steel inside the oil tanker.

Pakistan invited Saudi Arabia to become the third partner in the Belt and Road initiative of major infrastructure projects inside Pakistan, as Pakistan’s information minister said last week. Fawad Chaudhry mentioned that he expects Saudi Arabia to invest in Pakistan in a major way.

Rohit Agarwal, Ship Recycling Expert at GSR Sentinels LLP, shares his view on the ship recycling industry at Alang. Mr. Agarwal says that India, Pakistan and Bangladesh have the ideal tidal conditions for ship breaking. However, the ship recycling industry has been using unacceptable conditions. Nevertheless, this seems to be changing as the Hong Kong Convention sets standards to ensure safe ship recycling.

At total of 20 workers were rescued after being trapped inside an oil tanker which caught fire in Gadani shipbreaking yard, Pakistan, on Monday, local media reported. The incident occurred during dismantling operations only a few months after the tanker scrapping ban was lifted. 

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.

A senior executive from COSCO Shipping Line Pakistan, was shot dead in the Pakistani financial hub of Karachi earlier this week, with police saying that this is a targeted attack. The man was Chen Zhu and he was the Pakistan general manager of Cosco Shipping Lines. Chen Zhu was in his car when he was attacked in the port city of Karachi.

CMA CGM announced the launch, starting July 2, of its new service between the East Mediterrane an, Djibouti, Arabian Gulf, Pakistan and India. The service is one of the fastest between these strategic zones and connects CMA CGM hubs in the Mediterranean and the Arabian Gulf.