Bangladesh has the most deficient ratio – 42 ships – 3 deaths.
Indonesia has the best productivity. 81 illegal fishing boats were demolished in 15 seconds.
Palau is the trendy funeral flag this quarter. 11 ships were deflagged to Palau just prior to be sent for scrapping. 17 of the 45 ships deflagged for their last voyage belonged to European shipowners.
The purchase price offered by shipbreaking yards in the second quarter of 2017 is around 350 US$ per ton in the Indian Sub-continent and around 250 US$ in China and in Turkey. The cumulated tonnage of scrapped ships is 1.6 million tons. The tanker Catherine Knudsen built in 1992 in Nagasaki, Norwegian-owned and Norwegian-flagged, was sold for more than 8 million US$. She was deflagged to Palau for her last voyage.
Pakistan is ranked four, behind India, Bangladesh, and China in terms of metal scrap tonnage. Pakistan has suspended tanker beaching since the explosions and fires of November 2016 and January 2017. Furthermore, Pakistan has to face the thorny issue of oil smuggled from ships that are beached for demolition.
The number of container ships sent to be demolished has reduced this quarter. Except for the Mozambique sold for more than 11 million US$ to Alang, units sent for scrapping cannot be called mega container ships and have in average a capacity less than 2000 boxes.
Mozambique, see p. 50. Photo Martin Klingsick
A careful attention is drawn on converted ships sent for breaking. During operation, use and shape have been changed. Such a transformation is not without risk. Some remember the painful shipwreck of the Compass Rose III, working for Total Marine Oil, in April 1975, in the North Sea. The Compass Rose III was a former US mine-sweeper converted to a research ship. Nowadays, it is the turn of oil tankers converted to ore carriers to be pointed at after the loss of Stellar Daisy with almost all her crew in late March this year. It is likely that by the end of this year several ex oil tankers converted to ore carriers or other traffics will be directed to the Asian beaches. Issues # 49 and 50 will confirm this.
For the April-May-June 2017 quarter, some worldwide famous ships known for misfortune, fires, or even beaching due to the crew’s tiredness, were destroyed. We can mention in particular the Melbridge Bilbao, grounded off Molène Island, off Brittany, in November 2001, the Horncliff which lost 90 of her containers on approaching the Cornwall’s coast, United Kingdom, in the winter 2008, the Nabil J grounded in Sidon, Lebanon, in April 2017 and the Silver Sky, a car carrier trapped by a fire in Antwerp, Belgium. She was towed to Aliaga, Turkey, for demolition. The Flemish port authorities allowed the risky towage towards Turkey despite a proposal by Galloo Recycling, located in Ghent near Antwerp.
An Antarctica veteran, the Italica, deflagged from Italy to Palau for her last voyage was beached in Alang. Since, 1991, she had been supplying the Italian Antarctica base.
Shipbreaking #48, an exciting travel within the bowels of worldwide ship and radioactive offshore platforms recycling.
Shipbreaking #48. Bulletin of information and analysis on ship demolition
90 pages – 280 photos – 3 maps – French and English language (pdf – 13.8 Mo)
Imprimer cet article
