The European Commission recently published its first list of approved facilities for ship recycling but according to ECSA it has the capacity to demolish less than 30% of the EU's on target for vessel scrapping of 2.5m ldt.
The list features 18 yards, all of which are in Europe, and also not capable of recycling many of the larger vessels being sent for scrap today.
“Approximately 150 container vessels were sent for recycling in 2016, the current EU list would cater for only 16 smaller container vessels, taking into consideration limitation of EU yards in terms of length and vessel draft. And that is just for one type of vessels. We thus strongly encourage the Commission to enlarge the list to non-EU facilities as soon as possible,” said Patrick Verhoeven, secretary general of the ECSA.
While the EC has received applications from outside the EU these yards are still being reviewed and will require site inspections this year.
“Whilst the EU list can serve to raise ship recycling standards worldwide and respond to recycling demand, the current list clearly shows the need to include third country yards and especially those that already meet the international standards laid down in the Hong Kong Convention for safe and environmentally sound ship recycling,” Verhoeven said.
All vessels sailing under an EU flag will eventually be required to use an approved ship recycling facility, once the EU Ship Recycling Regulation effectively applies. This will either be six months after the date that the combined maximum annual ship recycling output of the ship recycling facilities included in the European list comprise not less than 2.5m ldt in capacity, or on 31 December 2018, whichever date occurs first.
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