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SHIP SCRAPPING KNOCKED, BUT ALTERNATIVES ELUSIVE

by Matt DAILY, Reuters

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, 23 June 1999 -- Government and environmental leaders on Wednesday criticised procedures for scrapping old ships, but offered few alternatives for improving the poor safety and environmental record of the industry. I consider ship scrapping in developing nations a humanitarian and ecological disaster," Dutch Transportation Minister Tineke Netelenbos told industry representatives at the a Ship Scrapping Summit here. Ship scrapping was previously carried out in many parts of the world, but several facilities were dismantled because of the low financial return from steel recovered from the ships.

Much of the scrapping now is carried out by poorly trained, low wage workers on beaches in the Indian subcontinent who work in dangerous environs and in close contact with hazardous materials. But some shipping experts defended scrapping as essential to rid the oceans of aging ships and to reduce excess capacity in the market.

"The materials and equipment are almost always re-used...it is, in the best sense of the phrase, a green industry," said Rolf Westfal-Larsen, chairman of the International Chamber of Shipping.

Unquestionably there are certain substances that require special handling," he said, such as on a Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC), which typically contain several tonnes of asbestos, he said.

Speakers at the conference also disagreed on whether the dismantling of the ships fell foul of the Basel Convention, which prohibits the shipment of hazardous waste from OECD states to non-OECD countries.

An estimated 700 ocean-going ships per year are scrapped, Greenpeace Chief Executive Thilo Bode said, with India dismantling an estimated 70 percent of those, followed by Bangladesh, Pakistan, China and the Philippines.

The average scrapped ship is 95 percent steel, Bode said, and is coated with 10 to 100 tonnes of paint containing lead, cadmium, organotins, arsenic, zinc and chromium. Shipbuilding materials also contain PCBs, various types of asbestos and several thousand tonnes of oil.

Although participants appeared unaninanimous in calling for changes to the current system, no clear economically viable alternatives emerged. "We have a compelling need to maintain the capacity of the disposal yards." Westfal-Larsen said. The most practical solution is an upgrading of existing facilities, he added.

International Maritime Industries Forum Chairman, Jim Davis, said he saw a subsidy system as a possible way to help alleviate many of the current problems.

That cost should be borne by shipbuilders, who are best placed to deal with the ever-aging fleet, he said.

"It you want to put a shipyard, you must subsidise the breaking of old ships" he said. "Ship builders are vital, and they tend to have more money than shipowners," he added.

Any improvements to the current methods are sure to cost money, which will probably not come from the scrappers themselves, who usually lack the necessary capital.

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