A total of 668 vessels were broken on tidal beaches during the year in 2016, 87 percent of all tonnage dismantled globally, with German companies among the worst offenders, according to a new report from the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
Source: Katiekk/Shutterstock
A total of 668 vessels were broken on tidal beaches during the year in 2016, according to a new report from the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
Last year saw the continued increase in “dangerous and dirty” shipbreaking practices, according to a new report from the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
A total of 668 vessels were broken on tidal beaches during the year in 2016, 87 percent of all tonnage dismantled globally, the report said.
“The shipping industry is nowhere close to ensuring sustainable ship recycling practices,” said Patrizia Heidegger, executive director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
“Last year, we saw not only an increase in the market share for dangerous and dirty shipbreaking, but also a record-breaking number of EU-owned vessels on the South Asian beaches. A jaw-dropping 84 percent of all European end-of-life ships ended up in either India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.
“Beaching yards are not only well known for their failure to respect international environmental protection standards, but also for their disrespect of fundamental labour rights and international waste trade law,” she added.
The report noted at least 28 workers were killed and more than 50 injured Nov. 1, 2016, as a result of an explosion and fire at a tanker beached in Gadani, Pakistan. Another 22 workers were killed and 29 suffered serious injuries in the Bangladeshi yards during the year, according to the report. Although accident records at Indian shipbreaking yards are confidential, the platform said it was informed of at least two fatalities in Alang.
By region, German companies were responsible for the “worst shipbreaking practices amongst all shipping nations when one compares the size of its fleet to the number of ships broken irresponsibly,” NGO Shipbreaking Platform said. German owners, banks and ship funds beached 98 of a total 100 vessels sold for demolition, according to the report.
Of those 98 ships, close to 40 percent were broken in Bangladesh, where shipbreaking conditions are “known to be the worst,” the report said.
“The German shipbreaking practices come with a high death toll,” the platform said. “During the breaking period of the Renate N. at Seiko shipbreaking in Chittagong, Bangladesh, three workers were killed and three more injured…In November, another Bangladeshi worker was killed during the demolition of the only 10 year-old, loss-making container ship Vikotria Wulff.”
“It is not the first time that shipbreaking workers pay with their lives for the failed business practices of German ship owners and their ship funds,” said Heidegger. “Due to numerous bankruptcies resulting from short-sighted and high-risk investment, insolvency administrators appointed by the courts quickly trade the unprofitable ships to the beaches of South Asia, and the bill for the shipping industry’s greed is paid by people and the environment.”
The report named Greece as responsible for the highest number of ships sold to South Asian shipbreaking yards in 2016 at 104 vessels, noting that a fire on the Gaz Fountain, owned by Athens-based Naftomar and beached in Pakistan in December 2016, caused the death of five workers in January.
“It is scandalous that the burden to deal with Europe’s profit-greedy shipbuilding boom is shifted to communities and workers in South Asia: first the shipping industry creates a large overcapacity on the market, and then it fails to find responsible solutions for its obsolete ships,” said Heidegger.
She noted that container shipping industry leader Maersk Line in 2016 returned to the shipbreaking beaches of India in order to get more money for scrapped tonnage, estimating that due to the current overcapacity in container shipping, Maersk will send an additional 75-100 ships to scrapyards in the coming years.
“This move to boost profits does not only help to rubberstamp the beaching method, but, very regrettably, it is also stalling real progress and innovation in India to move ship recycling to the next level – off the beach – to modern ship recycling facilities,” she said.
The NGO Shipbreaking Platform report includes a full list of all vessels scrapped worldwide in 2016.
