The European Commission published on Wednesday 5 March its Industrial Maritime Strategy, an important milestone in supporting the European maritime industry. While the strategy acknowledges the importance of ship recycling and the need to strengthen the sector within the EU, it lacks actionable measures to scale up capacity. The strategy’s reference to cooperating with India moreover risks accentuating the unfair competition currently faced by EU yards which today remain underutilised. Without clear targeted support, and an unambiguous plan to boost domestic capacity, the EU risks missing a critical opportunity to meet its climate and circularity objectives.

Although EU/EFTA shipping companies own over 35% of the global fleet, only 1% of EU-owned ships are today dismantled in the EU. According to our research, about 12 000 EU/EFTA-owned vessels will become eligible for scrapping in the next decade. Boosting European capacities for ship recycling is therefore timely and will provide key sectors with access to high quality scrap steel, as recently called for by the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, EUROFER and Recycling Europe.

In this context, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform welcomes the European Commission’s commitment to “explore ways to support the expansion of domestic EU ship recycling capacity”. As outlined in our report Scrap Steel at Sea, ship scrap steel represents a valuable feedstock for steel producers, who, by using scrap instead of virgin materials, can achieve substantial savings in water and energy, reduction of CO2 emissions, while also reducing reliance on imported raw materials vulnerable to geopolitical disruptions.
While the Industrial Maritime Strategy signals a step in the right direction, clear commitments are, however, needed to ensure that the targeted funds announced for the maritime industry give specific attention to developing a competitive European ship recycling sector.

The announced EU Industrial Maritime Value Chains Alliance could in that regard play a pivotal role by mapping existing ship recycling capacities, identifying the investments required to scale them up in response to the forthcoming surge of end-of-life vessels, and assessing the associated job creation potential.

The strategic importance of the EU ship recycling sector in strengthening the bloc’s material resilience should furthermore be explicitly aligned with the other key policies, such as the Industrial Accelerator Act and Circular Economy Act. Finally, to effectively enable broader uptake of low-carbon maritime scrap-based or upcycled steel in lead markets, binding criteria for recycled content in public procurement [1] should be adopted.

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform supports the European Commission’s commitment to engage at the international level to strengthen the Hong Kong Convention [2] and align it with the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. However, while ensuring fair competition with third countries is one of the Commission’s main objectives, the Strategy does not address the unfair competition faced by EU ship recycling yards, including from substandard non-EU yards approved under the EU Ship Recycling Regulation. Also, as the Commission commits to “work with trading partners with ship-recycling capacity, starting with India [3], to foster high environmental and social standard”, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform warns that Indian shipbreaking yards still rely fully on the beaching method and that any rubberstamping of this lowest standard in ship recycling, not allowed in the EU, would undermine efforts aimed at boosting EU capacity and a level playing field that fosters fair competition.

“India currently does not have the capacities to recycle ships in a safe and environmentally sound manner. EU cooperation with third countries, including India, on ship recycling, must be based on the enforcement of strict social, occupational health and environmental standards as applied in the EU, clearly banning harmful practices such as beaching or landing as practiced in South Asia and Turkey respectively. Besides, international and EU waste laws are clear on the illegality of exporting hazardous waste, including end-of-life ships, from the EU to India” says Ingvild Jenssen, Executive Director and Founder of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.

The NGO Shipbreaking Platform stands ready to collaborate with the Commission and maritime stakeholders to implement the Industrial Maritime Strategy and go beyond to ensure that effective measures are in place to foster the safe and environmentally sound dismantling of all European ships.
Source: NGO Shipbreaking Platform