ISRA Network

ISRA welcomes further step in green ship recycling

As announced on the website of ISRA, EU-Commissioner Karmenu Vella responsible for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries will visit the advanced ship recycling facilities of Galloo (Ghent) on 8 of January 2019. This visit can be seen as a result of the excellent bilateral contacts between ISRA and the EU- services. Undoubtedly ISRA will also take this opportunity to point out some actual issues. ISRA will raise the issue that applicants for the EU-list need to fulfill all the demands, especially those requirements concerning all aspects of the beaching i.e. preventing waste being in contact with surface water (through tidal waves). The facilities in Gent will illustrate that numerous prevention measures have been taken. The recycling process in Ghent takes place at high standards and show that a competitive disadvantage occurs when these requirements are not applicable for new entries on the EU-list. ISRA invites their members to propose issues that can be raised at this high level meeting and will share the outcome of this visit with its members. Reinoud Pijpers, Director ISRA  

Secretary General and director ISRA visited the Dutch NIBC bank. This bank, together with other banks (amongst them ABN/AMRO, ING, SEB and DNB), are active in formulating a finance policy concerning ship recycling, resulting in a document: ”Responsible Ship Recycling Standards (RSRS)”. Michael de Visser, Global Head of Shipping & Intermodal, in an earlier press statement: “Our discussions with shipowners on RSRS ensure that their interest and willingness to embrace responsible ship recycling standards, is already initiated in an early stage of the life-cycle of a ship”. ISRA embraces this initiative by the banks, since shipowners play a crucial role in the sound and safe recycling of ships. ISRA will stay in close contact with this initiative and is looking for an active participation.

On November 20 2018, this Association held her yearly general meeting. Ship recycling was one of the main topics during this event. Presentations, addressing the new EU Ship Recycling Regulation, were given by the Dutch government and oversight inspectorate. Since a Dutch shipowner was convicted by criminal law, a lot of interest in the Netherlands is drawn to this subject. ISRA played an active role during the discussion, mainly framed on the available EU recycling capacity. ISRA made very clear that her figures, supported by those of the EU, show that for the past and the coming future the available EU-(list) capacity is more than sufficient. Attention was given to the “incident” with the former Rainbow Warrior from Greenpeace. This ship is being recycled on a yard which does not comply with the EU or ISRA standards. Despite the press release of Greenpeace (see below), shipowners found it inacceptable that Greenpeace did not take appropriate action. “Statement: decommissioning the Rongdhonu (ex Rainbow Warrior (II)) by Greenpeace International "We have made a mistake, one that we have tried to correct. We have allowed the Rongdhonu, formerly the Rainbow Warrior (II), to be scrapped on a beaching yard in Bangladesh, in a way that does not live up to the standards we set ourselves and campaigned with our allies to have adopted across the world. When we transferred ownership of the Rainbow Warrior to a Bangladeshi non-governmental organisation called Friendship, in 2011, the ship was no longer fit to sail the high seas. It was however suitable to be converted into a hospital ship traversing coastal waters and rivers. Renamed Rongdhonu, Bengali for Rainbow, it has since brought vital health care to some of the world’s most remote and vulnerable communities. In that time, it has touched the lives of over 160,000 people. This year the ship, at 61 years old, reached the end of its life. When we transferred the ship to Friendship in 2011 we retained the right of veto over any final disposal plan. She became a Bangladeshi ship, owned, operated and flagged and only licensed to sail inland and coastal waters. Given its condition, we presumed it would need to be decommissioned in the best way possible in Bangladesh. As proposed by Friendship. We should have consulted our partners in the NGO Shipbreaking Platform and the Basel Action Network, we did not. No excuse. We should have. Over the last week we have been talking with both. They maintain, as does the EU and many other leaders in the field, that breaking ships on beaches is fundamentally unsafe, exploitative of workers and damaging to the marine environment. Upon realising our mistake, we began work to try and find an alternative way for the ship to be decommissioned, but this was not possible. The ship was beached and readied to be cut up. We should have examined all options to have the ship decommissioned ‘off the beach’ and in a way, that provides guarantees that all wastes generated will be managed in the most environmentally safe way possible. We are now seeking to ensure that specific wastes that cannot be treated safely, ‘downstream’, in Bangladesh can be sent out of the country for management. There is much to be done to protect workers and the environment from the dangers of ship breaking and we regret that having made the mistake sends the wrong signal about the readiness to do so in Bangladesh. Greenpeace does not believe that breaking ships apart on tidal beaches is green. Going forward Greenpeace commits to urgently adopt an end-of-life ship policy, drafted with the help of the Shipbreaking Platform, to help ensure such errors do not occur in future". For more information on clean and ethical ship breaking see NGO Shipbreaking Platform. Amsterdam, The Netherlands 15 November 2018        

ISRA press statement In the past months in many ways attention has been drawn to the date of 31-12-2018, of the entry into force of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. In this regulation it is stipulated that the recycling capacity to recycle EU flagged ships should be 2,5 million LDT. In various articles in the press it is argued that, by the coming into force of the EU-regulation, a possible shortage of sound and safe recycling facilities could occur. Recent past Thorough analysis of historic figures by ISRA shows that the amount of end of life of EU flagged ships in the past eight years declined from an average of 750 k to 450 k per year. The current listed EU capacity to recycle ships amounts 1,3 million LDT. So this capacity is ample to cope with the expected demand of end of life EU flagged ships. More capacity in 2019 Additional capacity of estimated 0,5 million LDT will become available in due course as it is expected that more recycling facilities will be listed on the EU-list end of this year. Size of ships It is also argued that the capacity in the EU is limited by the size of the yards not able to handling large ships. Out of the same research done by ISRA it turns out that over the last seven years a minor number of EU flagged end-of life -vessels > 12.500 has been recycled and brought to beaches. ISRA emphasizes that these few ships could well have been recycled in responsible yards in Turkey. Future Analysis of the expected volume of EU flagged end-of-life-vessels from 2019 on shows that the next eight years this volume will not exceed the 1 million LDT. ISRA will continue its efforts and supports to the EU Commission to finish the listing as soon as possible. For more infromation: Reinoud Pijpers, ISRA Director +31 681 3150 22 Reinoud.pijpers@isranetwork.com  

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ISRA press statement The recent development to review the import of “to be recycled ships” in the Peoples Republic of China is challenging for the Ship Recycling Industry as a whole. The International Ship Recycling Association (ISRA)shares the concern on Environmental standards and Human safety as regulated in the Hong Kong Convention and the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. The announcement to stop importing recycle ships in China could close some of the best recycling facilities in the world that match the Hong Kong Convention and the EU ship recycling regulation requirements. Since the IMO started to discuss Ship Recycling regulations, a number of Chinese Ship Recycling Facilities has upgraded and invested in their facilities enormously. This made these yards the first in the world to recycle ships at the highest standards available on Health, Safety and Environment. China as a fast developing country and ship building nation should in our opinion continue to take their producer responsibility to also continue to include Ship Recycling. The last 20 years China has contributed greatly to the method of Ship Recycling and economic viable recycling operations. The method of Ship Recycling in China reduced the total amount of waste and transformed it in recovered reusable materials in an environmentally sound manner. The records in China have shown that ship recycling can be an environmental sound and safe industry The Chinese Yards has been a prime example for other yards around the world, to improve and invest. If the announcement of the central government in China is activated the result is that well over 2.5 million tons of high standard capacity is taken out of the global market and can be seen as a major step back in the global development towards environmental and human safe ship recycling. Ship owners that have deliberately selected China in the past as the best ship recycling Country in the world have to find new solutions for facilities with equal standards. The lost ship recycling capacity cannot be found within a short period and this could force these ship owners to accept lower standards. This negative trend is hard for the industry to accept and understand. Secretary General of  The International Ship Recycling Association（ISRA）Mr. Bernard Veldhoven states: “ISRA is concerned about this recent development and is available to regulators around the world to discuss and assist in keeping this important capacity for the maritime industry. We would welcome the Chinese Government to review its announcement and maintain this important ship recycling capacity for the future.” For more information: Bernard Veldhoven, Secretary General ISRA +31 650518139                  

The Hague, April 30, 2018 - The International Ship Recycling Association (ISRA) announces the appointment of Dutchman Reinoud Pijpers (65) as its new Director effective May 1. Mr. Pijpers who has previously held positions with the Dutch Ministry of Maritime Affairs takes over from current ISRA director Arjen Uytendaal who has served the interests of ISRA for almost ten years and will step down due to this present work for the Dutch Maritime cluster and the European Network for Maritime Clusters (ENMC). Reinoud Pijpers has worked at different Ministries in The Netherlands and in the period 2004-2008 was closely involved in ship recycling as member of the Dutch delegation at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)/Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) in the preparation of the Hong Kong Convention of Ship Recycling. He also has experience in EU policies and decision making. ISRA was founded in 2007 as the global platform for responsible ship breaking yards providing an alternative to the traditional scrapping practices in the Indian subcontinent.  ISRA aims to create a worldwide level playing field for ship breaking and at the same time focuses on promoting sustainable ship recycling and changing the image of the dismantling industry. For more information: Bernard Veldhoven, Secretary General ISRA +31 650518139  

On the 7th and 8th of March 2018 the Tradewinds Ship Recycling Forum was organised in Hamburg. Various presentations were given during nine sessions. In general much attention was given to green policies on the level of individual shipping companies, the need for effective regulation and implementation by international organisations, an active attitude of the respective competent national authorities, and of the necessity to keep promoting save and sound ship recycling. Some organisations however overtly promoted beaching as a serious and profitable way of disposing of ships. ISRA-members were well represented during this forum and were actively engaged in presenting their views. Peter Wyntin explained clearly what membership of the European Ship Recyclers Group (ESR) means in practice. Not only a well-trained and well-equipped workforce, high standards concerning the site but also clear lines in the less visible relationship between the ship-owner and the recycling company. Dimitri Ayvatoglu illustrated that high profile vessels being recycled in Turkey continued the trend from 2017 and mentioned that seven Turkish facilities applied for the European list. Tom Peter Blankestijn referred in his presentation to the recent impediments caused by illegal waste- export to China and indicated that also green ship recycling yards in China were affected by these measures. So far two recycling yards can continue their activities in 2018. Blankestijn emphasized that these two facilities covered 95% (250 vessels) of the capacity, concluding that green capacity is sufficient, taken into account that most of the volume has been handled in 2017. Overall there is a growing concern about the EU listing procedure. Not only members of ISRA referred to the sluggish progress in this field. On top of this it was stipulated by various speakers that green EU recycling capacity is not sufficient to cope with the dismantling capacity needed for the EU fleet. In his presentation (see attachment) Emilien Gasc from the European Commission showed the progress in this field. He elaborated the process of certification and showed that the various steps in the certification process have to be taken. Twenty-four non-EU member states applicate for the EU list. Applications for the EU-list: - India   :10/11 - Turkey :7 - China   :4 - USA      :2 The EU Commission will present the various applications to the member states of the EU. It is therefore very important that the member states can provide information needed for the delegates to participate actively in this process. ISRA will address this specific issue in the coming newsletter. Session 5 - Emilien Gasc

A delegation of Pakistani officials has recently visited the Aliaga region in Turkey: in particular they followed informative presentations and discussions at the Turkish Association of Ship Breakers and visited the ISRA member Leyal Yard as model facility of Aliaga.