BIMCO Helps Launch a Ship Recyclers' Association to Promote the HKC

An HKC-certified yard at Alang, India (Courtesy Bansal Group)

Published Nov 14, 2024 11:34 PM by The Maritime Executive

 

 

Shipping industry association BIMCO has launched a new association of ship recycling yards and brokers, chaired by leading cash buyer GMS. The newly-formed Ship Recycling Alliance is intended to smooth the way for global implementation of the Hong Kong Convention (HKC), the clean-scrapping rules that come into full force in June 2025.

The overwhelming majority of the world's end-of-life tonnage is demolished on tidal flats in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. The HKC aims to reduce the environmental impact of shipbreaking by imposing international rules and certification procedures at these yards. Currently, only a minority of shipowners choose to voluntarily comply with the HKC in market-driven demolition tonnage transactions, and BIMCO says that coordination between owners and yards will be key. 

"We need an alliance that can formulate and represent the views of the international ship recycling industry and connect that with all other stakeholders involved. Doing so, we strongly believe we can move forward and fuel progress," said Dr. Nikos Mikelis, non-Executive Director of GMS and Chairperson of the alliance.

The alliance includes BIMCO, the shipbreakers' associations for India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey, leading cash buyers GMS and Wirana, and HKC-certified shipbreaker Bansal Group. 

According to BIMCO, more than 15,000 ships will be recycled over the next 10 years, and there will be a need for more HKC-compliant yards. The new Ship Recycling Alliance will help promote that transition, and will "co-ordinate the voices of the ship recycling industry and the shipping industry." One of its key tasks will be to organize talks with IMO and with the Secretariat of the Basel Convention - an international treaty on the export of all toxic waste - to seek clarity on the legal implications of overlapping requirements. This could include proposals for future amendments, or providing support to scrapyards for complying with additional Basel Convention requirements.  

Some environmental activists claim that in its current state, the HKC does not go far enough. In particular, the convention continues to allow beaching as a demolition method, and watchdog NGO Shipbreaking Platform asserts that it gives too little guidance on downstream handling of hazardous waste - a key feature of the Basel Convention. The European Union does not recognize HKC certification for regulatory purposes, and it imposes its own compliance rules under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation.