28 June 2023 (Lloyd's List) - THE European Commission has been urged to take early action to expand its list of approved recycling facilities to include facilities that comply with the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships.
Welcoming this week’s ratification of the Hong Kong Convention by Bangladesh, a major recycler of ships, the Cyprus Shipping Chamber said that it is “imperative” for yards complying with the convention to be approved for recycling European tonnage.
It is likely to be the first of many calls from industry bodies, especially those representing European owners, for Brussels to recognise the convention for the purpose of approving specific facilities.
The HKC will now enter force in two years’ time and this will cause a review of the European Ship Recycling Regulation and whether the two regimes can be aligned.
With the HKC officially coming into force and “recognising the progress that has been made over the past 14 years since its adoption by the IMO”, the Cyprus Chamber said that it was “imperative that the European Commission adds to the European list of approved recycling facilities, any recycling facility that meets the requirements of the [HKC]”.
It argued that the move would provide “a level playing field for end-of-life EU-flagged ships, that are now required to be recycled in a small number of recycling facilities included in the EU List, which is not sufficient to satisfy demand and geographic spread for a global industry like shipping.”
Cyprus shipping officials have also previously dubbed the EU list of approved facilities as “inadequate”.
The most recent incarnation of the list contains 45 ship recycling facilities, including 38 yards in Europe, six in Türkiye and one yard in the US.
The EU has repeatedly argued that the recycling capacity of the yards on the list was “still multiple times higher” than demand and that several approved yards are capable of recycling large vessels. Non EU-flagged vessels are commonly scrapped in South Asia, which is not represented in the EU list.
