SHIP DEMOLITION

Goodbye Bangladesh, hello Philippines?

On March 18^th 2009 the Bangladeshi High Court of Justice ordered the closure within two weeks of all ship-breaking yards operating without environmental clearance. Considering the state of all the ship-breaking yards in the country this would mean completely closing down the field. The decision also prohibits the importation of vessels which have not undergone any preliminary extraction of hazardous materials (asbestos, PCBs, heavy metals, hydrocarbons …) To prepare an appeal against this decision the industries obtained a delay of three weeks. In the meantime, the vessels continue to arrive and are beached in Chittagong. We are left to see how this decision will be followed up, the decisions effects and if it will encourage the Bangladeshi government to put standards in place and follow up the environmental and social conditions of ship-breaking or if the demolition market will move elsewhere: due to the crisis the Japanese ship owners have an influx of vessels to be demolished and are pushing the Filipino government to launch into the demolition business.

Only in French.

The 14th Information bulletin on ship demolition is available. It covers the period of September 22^nd to December 31^st during which a rush of old hulls heading towards Asian ship-breaking yards is noted. 54% of these vessels belonged to European ship-owners or belonged to members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). In this trend the French ship-owner CGM-CMA sent to be demolished the I’Ursula Delmas ex-Sherbro, the Véronique Delmas and the CMA-CGM Potomac. 65% of the vessels left for demolition during the last trimester of 2008 had previously been detained in harbours worldwide for deficiencies; this confirms deterioration in the maintenance and in the general condition of vessels. They all left without pre cleaning.

Only in French.

While the chopping down of fishing boats is persisting in the French slipways except for a few of them, declarations of good faith from the owners and from the excavators continue. Cargo ships and other large size vessels keep on, except for a few exceptions, to flow towards Asian graveyards under the common convenience flag of Consensus-and-status-Quo Islands.

Robin des Bois is releasing their 13th information bulletin on ship demolition. Listed below are some bullet points from this bulletin which is available today on the associations’ internet site:

Only in French.

Only in French.

Within the framework of adapting the fishing fleet to the European policy, hundreds of boats will be demolished in France from now until the end of the year. Each owner receives a substantial compensation bonus from the European Union and the French State which could reach up to 600,000 €. The bonus is calculated taking into account the age of the vessel, its size, the type of fishing and the related catch quota and finally the engine’s power. The paying of this bonus is triggered by a proof of destruction or of the incapacity to navigate.

Only in French.

Three French ship owners are sending to Chittagong (Bangladesh) vessels containing asbestos and other dangerous materials. The Descartes was supposedly sold by Gaz de France for operation to a Taiwanese company TMT, in fact after Marseille the Descartes stayed in a Chinese port for a couple of months before arriving in Bangladesh on July19th 2008; her only activity was to have her name changed twice. Other vessels include the Muadi a crude oil tanker which belonged to the oil company Perenco and the Serepca 1 also a crude oil tanker owned by a subsidiary of Total. The Edouard LD owned by Louis Dreyfus Armateurs and Gaz de France was sold “for operation” to Dynacom, a Greek ship owner, with the same fate of demolition in view. In spite of the huge profits (750 $ per ton for vessels at the end of their lives to 1,000 $ per ton for the vessels containing stainless steel or non ferrous metals like the Descartes sold for 14 millions dollars), the French and European ship owners are making no efforts to improve the working conditions of Bangladeshi workers.
July 22 nd, 2008