ISRA Network

From 14-18th of December 2018 the director of ISRA visited the ship recycling facility Jiangyin Xiagang Changjiang Ship recycling in China. This facility is situated at the Yangtze river in China, and is capable of receiving very large vessels. The recycling process takes place alongside and drydock, for the last part of the vessel. The facilities contain every aspect of sound and safe ship recycling amongst: asbestos storage without possibilities of containment, for a large part of the yard concrete floors, prevention of oil spill facilities and an accurate separation of various (non ferro) metals and waste. Through the large area of the yard separated by well indicated ways, safety enhancement concerning traffic flows can be relatively easily achieved. ISRA also had the opportunity to meet its associate member Sea2cradle. This company is carrying out oversight for the shipowner on a daily basis and checks on safe and sound working on the yard through the permanent presence of surveillance officers during the recycling activities. The Director of ISRA spoke with the owner of the yard, Mr Li Hongwei. He welcomed every support from ISRA and other bodies to the Chinese government to reconsider the ban on waste including end of life ships from the EU. Since this yard and the facilities in Zhoushan, also owned by Li Hongwei were applicants for the EU-list, Mr Li Hongwei emphasized the need to inform the competent authorities in China, to reconsider this decision.

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