Europe is exporting wastes to Bangladesh
The single hull oil tanker Muadi owned by the French society PERENCO has just been sold for demolition to Bangladesh for 695 $ per ton. Built in 1972, the Muadi (ex-Beatrix Voyager, ex-Chevron Zenith, ex-Afran Zenith, ex-La Nina) was converted in 1982 into a FSO Floating Storage and Offloading unit and was used until recently off Congo. This activity generates in the tanks and in the piping significant quantities of sediments and accumulates gases; these gases are susceptible to deadly explosions during the demolition. Such accidents have been recorded during the past years in Bangladesh.
Oil slick Queen demolished in Bangladesh ?
According to informations coming from Chittagong, three container ships managed by German companies have just been put on sale on the demolition market. These three vessels are the joint property of KGAL, based in Germany, the largest European maritime leasing* company, and subsidiary of Allianz and Dresdner Bank, and of V Ships Germany, subsidiary of V Ships Monaco, the largest manager of commerce vessels in the world.
The Ankara, the Maersk Brisbane, and the Maersk Barcelona (Maersk is solely the charterer) were built in Germany in 1975-1976 and are motorized by vapor turbines whose installation requires large quantities of asbestos. These three sisterships have a lightweight of 15,000 t each.
Already, V Ships and KGAL have made it known that they will assign the container ships destined for demolition to the highest bidder, that is to say to Bangladeshi demolition shipyards, at around $700 per ton while the average price in India is around $550 per ton.
Considering social, sanitary, and disastrous environmental conditions in Bangladesh, Robin des Bois asks these European companies to either proceed with the preliminary removal of asbestos, to choose the best Asian demolition shipyards within the framework of a specific partnership, or even to demolish and recycle these vessels in Europe. A letter was sent to them in this respect.
The three container ships are frequently in European waters and one of them, the Maersk Barcelona, appeared on the Atlantic front in September 2005, near the island of Sein, off Brittany, by a record “61 km (38 miles) oil slick” that was sanctioned by an $800,000 fine. The inspectors from the vessel security center had revealed a lack of care for the oily waters treatment installation.
Overview of ships broken up in 2007
For the 2nd consecutive year, Robin des Bois has been studying in detail the reality of the ship breaking market. The mobilisation and the analysis of about thirty diverse and specialised bibliographical sources made it possible to establish an inventory of the vessels sent to be demolished in 2007. In 2006, Robin des Bois tallied 293 vessels sold for demolition. In 2007, we listed 288 of them. If this decline in demolished vessels is modest (-2%), it is a little more significant with regard to the total weight of recycled metals: 1.7 million ton in 2007 against 1.9 million in 2006 (-10%). The situation differs however according to the category of ships considered: the number of tankers (oil tankers, chemical tankers, gas carriers) dismantled in 2007 increased by almost 30 % compared with 2006 whereas that of the bulk carriers and other general cargo ships decreased by almost 40 %; the average age of the tankers sent to demolition is 29 years, the average age for all the vessels is 31 years, the average age of bulk carriers 34 years.
Paranoia and Ghost Fleet
Since November 2003 four American vessels have been waiting to be demolished in the English port of Hartlepool. Following the legal harassment by the organisation Friends of the Earth, the dismantling is constantly delayed. From the beginning, Robin des Bois a non-governmental French organisation states that the British shipyard ABLE U.K in Hartlepool should be given permission to implement their contract to dismantle the retired US Navy freight ships. These ghost ships were towed to Hartlepool under an agreement between The United States and the British authorities. (See Robin des Bois press releases. “Un espoir pour les navires en fin de vie”, 8th December 2003 and “Another way of looking at the Clemenceau” 30th December 2005).
