News

New EU report confirms the need for clean breaking of thousands of oil tankers

8 october 2004 - A new EU report on the phasing out and scrapping of single hull oil tankers concludes that 2200 oil tankers will have to be scrapped after the end of their commercial life by the year 2010. At the same time there is nowhere near enough clean scrap capacity available. Immediate action is needed to make sure that all these ships don't end up on dirty shipbreaking beaches around the world. There is no time to wait, 'no time to waste'.

New facts show that thousands of single hull oil tankers will find their way to the ship breaking beaches in the South in the coming years. Broken under appellant conditions. After the accident with the Prestige, the EU as well as the IMO adopted legislation in 2003, accelerating the phasing out of single hull oil tankers.

Following a request of the European Parliament, the EU Commission (DG TREN) commissioned a report 'on the implications of the accelerated phase out scheme of single hull tankers proposed by the EU for the world ship scrapping and recycling industry'.

This report "Oil tanker Phase Out and the Ship Scrapping Study" has now become public. The main conclusions of the report are that:

* Around 2200 oil tankers, over and above the current level of end-of-life ships, will have to be taken out of the commercial market by 2010. It is estimated that the phase out scheme could lead to a peak volume of scrap in 2010 of up to 16.7 million LDT (1) (this is five-six times higher than the average annual level of scrapping of oil tankers of 1.9 million LDT seen over the last ten years).

* The EU Waste Shipment Regulation 259/93/EEC is evaded by the ship-owners, despite case law confirming the application of these regulations. In addition, existing guidelines adopted by IMO, ILO and the Basel Convention will only receive limited use as they are voluntary and not legally binding.

* There is currently almost no green scrap capacity for ships, not in the EU nor in the South. Only in a very optimistic scenario there might be some green capacity in a few years that can handle around 2 million LDT, which will not at all be enough to scrap all end-of-life ships.

* Green capacity will only be possible if legal and economic incentives are created. Recommendations of the report on the creation of legal and economic incentives include development of mandatory regulation and the establishment of a Global Fund paid by the shipping industry.

Read the EU Report (pdf).

Note

(1) Light Displacement Tonnage. The lightweight is the displacement, in tonnes, without cargo, fuel, lubricating oil, ballast water, fresh water and feed water, consumable stores and passengers and crew and their effects, but including liquids in piping.