Ship recycling industry to come under scrutiny in Dubai

The panel will present an up-to-the-minute picture of the current issues and key concerns facing ship recyclers, and use case studies to discuss practical solutions, with a focus on hazardous waste management developments, general health and safety, environmental management and the international regulatory environment.

The International Maritime Organisation’s (IMO) Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Friendly Recycling of Ships (2009) has set out a roadmap for increased worker safety and environmental protection, but it has its detractors and is yet to be fully ratified.

In December 2013, the European Commission (EC) took its own steps to add momentum to the movement for change with drafted regulations introduced to ‘force’ ship recycling yards to improve the standard of their operations and technical capabilities in order to make it onto an approved facility list for the scrapping of EU member state vessels.

Moderated by Bernard Veldhoven, secretary general, International Ship Recycling Association, the panelist line-up includes Rakesh Bhargava, head green recycling & IHM services, Wilhelmsen Ship Management; Vagelis Chatzigiannis, SNP trader, green ship recycling Co-ordinator, Global Marketing Systems (GMS); Keyur Dave, cfo, Wirana Shipping Corp; Stephen Drury, partner, Holman, Fenwick & Willan; and Ali Lakhani, director, Dubai Trading Agency, UAE.

A part of Dubai Maritime Week, SMEM will take place in Dubai from 28-30 October 2014 with the ship recycling session on day three at 1400 hrs.