Is Europe planning to dump hazardous ships in South Asia?

The European Environment Council meeting in Luxembourg in late October has seen environmentalists applauding progressive EU governments like Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Estonia, and Sweden for supporting the existing ban on the export of end-of-life ships containing hazardous wastes to developing countries. All this at a time when Europe seems to be contemplating taking retrograde steps in recent months, with some States having succeeded in pushing a European Union proposal on ship recycling that would effectively legalise the export of end-of-life ships containing hazardous wastes to countries in South Asia. 

"The proposal is both profoundly immoral and illegal," Roberto Ferrigno of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform had said earlier. “This will render European governments powerless in preventing exports of asbestos and PCB laden ships from being sent to developing countries and putting vulnerable workers at risk in contravention of our own treaty obligations. We are calling on the EU, which has the capacity to recycle ships safely and cleanly, to respect its laws and create good shipyard jobs at home."

The Iron Steel Scrap & Shipbreakers' Association of India (ISSAI) was also severely critical of the proposal, saying that it went against the Basel convention and that 'India should strongly oppose the proposed EU Regulations on export of ships for recycling. Our permanent stand is that all hazardous waste which are not required for the final voyage should be removed before sending ships for recycling as we cannot accept dumping of hazardous waste in the country. Instead of making amendment to allow ships to be exported for recycling by removing hazardous materials not required for final voyage, EU is only making a show by introducing this article but the same loophole persists." 

The ban on the export of end-of-life ships containing hazardous wastes has been part of the 2006 Waste Shipment Regulations in Europe. Any hazardous ship is not supposed to leave a EU port for shipbreaking in non-OECD countries. The famous case of the French aircraft carrier “Le Clémenceau” comes to mind; she was returned to France after she was slated to be beached in India with hazardous wastes aboard. 

Figures indicate that more than 200 European ships- most flagged outside the EU- were sent to South Asia for demolition last year. Many contain hazardous materials such as asbestos, mineral oil, PCBs, mercury, etc. With demolition activity spiking substantially this year, too little is known about the amounts of wastes piling up on the shores and ‘sickening’ the workers and nearby communities, a prominent environmental group says. A 2006 Indian Supreme Court backed study said that 16% of shipbreaking workers showed symptoms of asbestosis. 

Political will to solve the problem is “manifestly absent”, said the European Economic and Social Committee earlier this year, adding that the EC proposal was “weak and full of legal loopholes.” Critics allege that the EU Ministers are copping out when they claim that the current ban is too easily circumvented by shipowners- the problem is more a failure of enforcement of regulations, they point out.

 “Currently, the combined capacity of ship recycling facilities located in OECD countries would be enough to properly recycle most of EU-flagged and EU-owned ships,” said Patrizia Heidegger, Director of ‘Shipbreaking Platform’. “Instead of scrapping the EU ban on hazardous wastes exports to developing countries, the EU should promote green ship recycling at home.”
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Another suspicious death on the ‘Sage Sagittarius’.

The saga of the coal carrier ‘Sage Sagittarius’ got stranger last week, with an Australian investigator discovering, three weeks after the event, that another person had died on board the vessel on October 6 in suspicious circumstances while the ship was working cargo in Japan. This is the third fatality aboard the vessel in the last six weeks; the ship, operated by Nippon Yusen Kaisha, has an all Filipino crew aboard. The latest death is that of a Japanese Superintendent, who was reportedly crushed in a conveyor belt incident. His body took two hours to be extracted.

 The Australian Federal Police are already investigating the death of the Chief Cook, who is said to have fallen overboard about 450 miles from Cairns in the Timor Sea in late August. Then, police were called in two weeks later at Newcastle to investigate the death of the Chief Engineer Hector Collado. Initial reports suggested that Collado had suffered cardiac arrest just before docking. However, authorities said later that he might have sustained “crush injuries”. Other reports said that the Chief Engineer had fallen down the companionway in the engine room.

Six weeks ago, the death of the cook Cesar Llanto resulted in the vessel being diverted to Port Kembla for investigations. The incident had the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) expressing concern. Dean Summers from ITF Australia said at the time that the crewmember was planning to approach the ITF to make a complaint about work conditions. “This is a very serious situation. Our counsellors are waiting to speak to the crew members. It must be a very traumatic time,” Summers said.

The Superintendent that died this month was Kosaku Monji, an employee of Hachiuma Steamship, managers for the Sage Sagittarius. Monji is reported to have boarded the vessel at Newcastle before it sailed to Japan to ‘oversee crew safety.’ Dean Summers says the latest death is highly suspicious as there was no mention of it for weeks, and it was only discovered after an Australian inspector found an entry made in the ship’s log.

"A superintendent was put on there apparently to care for the welfare and safety of the crew. This is the superintendent that met his death just recently on October 6," Summers said. "Today is October 29; if it was a workplace accident, I would have thought any capable authority would have been able to determine that's the case.

"We think there has to be a higher level coordination… we'll be asking the Government to set up a taskforce to cut across the jurisdictions of the Australian Federal Police, the NSW Police and the Japanese police to make sure there is a transparent process to investigate the death of three seafarers," he said. 

Implying that the crew were being intimidated to keep quiet about the incidents, Summers added that the crew were “all too scared to talk.”

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Container shipping heading for record deliveries, imbalances

Braemar Seascope, one of the largest chartering, sale and purchase shipbroking firms in the world, says in its latest Quarterly Container Ship Fleet Statistics, that 2013 boxship deliveriers will exceed the record set in 2008- 1.7 m TEU will be delivered next year, a staggering 9.5% growth YOY.

Reports by another well-known name in the industry indicate that container shipping is in danger of being subject to a double whammy: record deliveries coupled with supply imbalances, thanks to the phenomenal growth of the 8000+ TEU fleet.

Clarkson’s, another leading industry player, says in a concurrent report that the trade will continue to suffer growing supply imbalances, explaining that the huge 260% expansion of the container fleet this century has been marked with uneven growth across size sectors, with the largest ships showing massive growth. From 2000, when there were just 10 VLCSs in the world- less than 0.1m TEU total- there are now 454 VLCSs around with a combined capacity of 4.5m TEU. Another 218 are on order and will raise global boxship capacity by half when delivered. “In comparison, the sub-3,000 TEU fleet has grown by just (!) 66% in capacity over the same period, and has in fact been shrinking since March 2009,” a report says.

Braemar, too, confirms the trend, reporting that 48 ultra large boxships- 10000 TEU or more- will be delivered in 2013. Moreover, the period of 2011-2014 will see annual deliveries of these averaging a staggering 50 units per year.  

Breaking up statistics, Clarkson’s reports that ownership of container ships is split evenly between operators and charter owners at present, but this too is skewed across size sectors. Operators currently own 62% of the VLCS fleet; however, they account for 74% of the VLCS capacity on order.

“The current delivery schedule suggests fleet growth is likely to slow significantly from 2014, with just 1.4m TEU scheduled to be delivered after next year. However, this growth will continue to be heavily concentrated in the larger sizes - 73% of current orderbook capacity is on vessels over 8,000 TEU. The sub-3,000 TEU orderbook has fallen to historically low levels - less than 0.2m TEU - equivalent to just 4.7% of fleet capacity in this size range. As such, although there are a number of emerging supply imbalances, the dominance of VLCSs in the pattern of fleet growth may prove the most significant in the medium-term,” Clarkson’s says.

Braemar’s container analyst Jonathan Roach feels that demolition will offset some capacity increases. “Supply growth this year has been actively countered with plenty of cellular demolition,” he says.  “During the first three quarters of 2012, containership demolition reached in excess of 220,000 TEU and we estimate by the end of the year the TEU capacity scrapped will reach the 300,000 TEU level. This represents the equivalent of approximately two per cent of the 1^stJanuary 2012 fleet. Historically, the biggest year for cellular scrapping was 2009, with 370,000 TEU was sent for recycling.”