Amidst the fears of Global Economic Turmoil, the ship breaking yard in India at Alang in Bhavnagar District in Gujarat state is all set to demolish 400+ vessels, in financial year 2011-12.

New vessels ordered in year 2006-2007-2008 are all set for deliveries by 2012, adding Global Shipping capacities by 25%, whereas on the flipside, freight-rate reductions and the global economic slowdown will result in a large number of ships to be destined for India’s ship breakers.  According to Bloomberg |UTV, they anticipate more than 180 million gross tons of the global shipping fleet, mainly comprised of vessels older than 20 years, will be made available for demolition.

Regulatory issues in Bangladesh and a high cost of breaking ships in China makes Alang a favorite destination for ship breaking.  Significant economic factors play into this as well considering India’s current  ban on iron-ore mining, and an infrastructure that is particularly suited for the consumption of scrap steel.

The depreciating Indian Rupee is becoming a factor however, as it is now becoming more and more cost-prohibitive to purchase vessels for demolition, in particular, non-Indian ships.

View Larger Map

Under a monsoon rain of sparks blowtorches tear through the thick steel skin of a ship. As they are cut lose, swaths of metal crash to the ground with thunder. This is the ship graveyard, final destination for most of the world’s shipping fleet, a place soaked in hazardous material and void of all natural life save a few men in need of subsistence and the crows that make nests from pieces of iron wire.

In Iron Crows, South Korean documentary filmmaker Bong-Nam Park shines a light on shipbreaking, a job more dangerous than Alaska crab fishing and one that pays less per day than the cost of a budweiser at an Alaskan bar.

The work at the world’s largest vessel demolition yard in Chittagong, Bangladesh is dangerous and grueling, but to the film’s star, a 12 year old boy named Ekramul, the need for food and shelter is more powerful than hard work or laws against child labor. For others the work is routine.  An elderly worker named Rufik remembers how it all began back in the 1960s, with a single ship that washed ashore. Later twenty-one-year-old Bilal shows the camera how unlikely it is that he will reach even middle age when a large section of one ship nearly decapitates him.

The impressive footage shot by Park evokes an atmosphere of menacing danger, but the faces beam when a new ship comes in. Most of the workers send a portion of their meager salary back to their families, and they are proud of that. But Bilal has not succeeded in saving $700 in 10 years, as he dreamt he would. His visit home to his wife, where he sees his undernourished, blind child for the first time, tears at his heart. This is a glimpse into the inner world of shipbreaker.

Here is a preview of the film “Iron Crows”:

The film, which has received positive reviews, will premier tonight in select cities and is expected to be available on DVD later this year.

“Asia is not only a hub of global shipbuilding industry but also a centre for ship recycling with actually over 90% of ex-service vessels worldwide dismantled in such countries as India, China, Bangladesh and Pakistan. That is why we will build up our service capability by assigning two technical experts to manage GL’s IHM and ship recycling projects in this region,” said Mr. Gerhard Aulbert, GL Global Practice Ship Recycling.

The Hong Kong Convention, as assumed to take effect in 2015, will impact upon all new and existing vessels above 500 GT worldwide by a certified “Inventory of Hazardous Materials” (IHM) onboard.  “It is very likely for the Chinese shipbuilding community to adopt the Hong Kong Convention as a standard much earlier given that China is one of the most reputable, competitive and experienced shipbuilding nations and many European ship owners are keen to order new vessels from shipyards in line with the latest international standards,” said Mr. Aulbert.

In terms of ship scrapping, the Hong Kong Convention also creates a new obligation for ship owners to sell their redundant ships only to recycling facilities that meet relevant standards and have been authorized by the national “competent authorities”. In Asia, the Ship Recycling Committee has recently encouraged major ship recycling countries to ratify the Hong Kong Convention.

GL has been participating in the development process of the Hong Kong Convention and relevant guidelines by offering its high standard solutions and reliable expertise, which has won GL a front runner status in driving the IHM and ship recycling issues.

Additionally, GL offers a comprehensive approach to help the maritime community address this regulatory challenge. It encompasses certification of IHM for newbuilding and fleet in service, support of its clients in their activities related to IHM and ship recycling, tailored consultancy and training to ship owners, ship yards and authorities involved in this business. These two ship recycling experts will be responsible for delivering quite some of these services to GL’s clients in Asia.

Via Germanischer Lloyd

Photo via Maisha Group

One of the perks of taking a vessel on her final voyage to the shipbreakers is the chance to pack your seabag with sextants, clocks or whatever else you can pry off the walls. But one man has taken this a step further, visiting the beaches of places like Alang, India to find, remove and artifacts from sailing ships of old. Our friends at Telstar Logistics tell us:

It was with a great deal of empathy that we opened today’s New York Times to find an article about Peter Knego, a gentleman who decorated his Moorpark, California home with pieces salvaged from midcentury ocean liners recovered from maritime scrapyards in Alang, India.

The NYT writes:

Altogether, Mr. Knego said, he has spent about half a million dollars on his seven trips to India, and another $70,000 or so shipping the spoils home to Moorpark. Friends help him unload the 40-foot-long containers and sort the contents in his backyard. [...]

Mr. Knego and his partner of 22 years, Mike Masino, a cost estimator for an aerospace company, have decorated their house with as much of the cache as possible. The living room is centered on a bar from the Aureol, which was built in Glasgow in 1951. Dining room furniture is from the Aureol, the Ivernia and the Stella Oceanis. A stair with a railing salvaged from the Ivernia leads to the second floor, where the master bedroom contains a mirror from the Empress of Canada and art from the Stella Oceanis by the Italian painter Emanuele Luzzati.

Click HERE to read more. Or HERE to visit Mid-Ship-Century Antiques.

MV Mont, formerly Knock Nevis, was the largest ship ever built. Before her final journey as the MV Mont she was known as the Knock Nevis and was a Norwegian owned supertanker. Prior to that she was known as Seawise Giant, Happy Giant, and Jahre Viking. She was 458 metres (1504 feet) in length and 69 m (226 ft) in width, making her the largest ship in the world. She was built between 1979 and 1981 but was damaged during the Iran-Iraq War while transiting the Strait of Hormuz. She sank and was declared a total loss. Shortly after Iran-Iraq war, Norman International bought the wreckage of the ship, repaired and refloated her in 1991. After that she was used as an immobile offshore platform for the oil industry. In 2009 the vessel was sold to Amber Development Corporation, and renamed MV Mont for her final journey to Alang, Gujarat, India in December 2009 where she was intentionally beached and scrapped.

Largest Man Made Moving Machine on the Planet! – Jeremy Clarkson’s Extreme Machines

Knock Nevis – The Largest Ship Ever – 565.000 DWT

Worlds Largest Ship – The Knock Nevis.

Monday, February 15, 2010
Rakesh Bhatnagar / DNA

Platinum-II, which lies anchored at the Alang shipbreaking yard off Bhavnagar, Gujarat, is considered an extremely toxic ship. The Union ministry of environment and forests had ordered GMB in November 2009 not to allow the Platinum-II into Alang as its nationality, originality, and registration were suspect.

The central government has told the authorities to investigate how Platinum-II was allowed to anchor at Alang despite orders from the Supreme Court and in violation of international covenants on keeping hazardous ships at bay.

Environmental activists have drawn the SC’s attention to what they claim are glaring lapses on GMB’s part in allowing the 208-metre long and 23,719 gross tonnage Platinum-II anchor at Alang at the behest of the politically powerful ship-breaking industry.

Incidentally, the US Environment Protection Agency had fined the Platinum-II’s last owners, Global Marketing Systems, $518,500 for exporting the ship for scrap without removing toxic substances on board such as asbestos.

keep reading »

• Times of India: It’s official: Platinum II ship is toxic
• Platinum-II found with fake ship registry
• MarineBuzz: DV Platinum II: India Disallows Beaching and Recycling at Alang Shipyard

This Monday, an ad hoc diplomatic conference will begin in Hong Kong that aims to make the ship breaking industry safer for its workers and for the environment by considering for adoption the International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships.  During the five day meeting, countries are expected to agree on measures that require new ships to limit the amounts of hazardous materials they’re built with and require older ships to be broken down in yards that meet certain environmental standards.

The new convention will provide regulations for the design, construction, operation and preparation of ships so as to facilitate safe and environmentally sound recycling, without compromising the safety and operational efficiency of ships; the operation of ship recycling facilities in a safe and environmentally sound manner; and the establishment of an appropriate enforcement mechanism for ship recycling, incorporating certification and reporting requirements.

Additionally, the convention is also expected to require recycling facilities to put in place measures that reduce explosions and other accidents as well ensuring workers are properly trained and provided with safety equipment such as gloves, goggles and face masks.

More on ship recycling at IMO.org

Scores die breaking down ships in Asia from AFP via Forbes

Photo by Edward Burtynsky

The Economic Times of India bring us news of the world’s most infamous ship breakers;

The hands that used to work on mammoth ocean liners and crude carriers and generated revenues worth Rs 80,000 crore till 2008 in one of the largest ship-breaking yards, have deserted it. Alang Ship Breaking Yard, on Gujarat’s Bhavnagar coast, which until 2004 could boast of being one of the biggest employers of migrant labour, has lost its men to other clusters as it lost business to Bangladesh. Over a period of four years, numbers have dwindled from 40,000 to about 5,000 migrant labourers.
tagzaniapaste

Ever since Alang breached its first vessel — MV Kota Tenjong — in 1983, it drew migrant labourers from Mumbai, Orissa, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh. Alang beached 4,539 ships between 1983 and 2008 and handled tonnage to the tune of 3,19,89400 LDT (light displacement tonnage).

Between 1996 and 2004, whenever large supertankers, container ships or passenger carriers were beached at Alang, it used to resemble a honeycomb with hundreds of manual labourers buzzing around the ships; dismantling them, salvaging what they could and reducing the rest to scrap. During its prime in 1998-99, Alang handled a record 361 ships with 30,37,882 LDT.

“We had close to 40,000 labourers during those days when business was profitable. Now, we are left with hardly 5,000 of them,” says vice-president of the Ship Recycling Industries Association (SRIA) at Alang, Vippin Aggarwal. Close to 95% of the labourers at Alang have been migrants, he points out. Continue Reading…

Not mentioned in the article are newly imposed environmental guidelines set by India’s Supreme Court and scrap metal prices that make ship breaking profitable in places like the UK and US.

Telstar Logistics provides details on this historic day:

This is a”view of a newly vacant pier 70 shipyard, now that the Oceanic Independence has left to meet her doom.”

The 1950s-era ocean liner has been towed away. Where’d it go? We fear she’s en route to India, where she may be broken up for scrap. (There’s a lively debate about this taking place in the comments to our previous post on the Independence.)

Jonathan Haeber reports that “SS Independence will be towed away to the breaker beaches of Alang, India. According to two to three sources, the boat has not only been sold by Norwegian Cruise Lines, but she’s also going to leaving the U.S. this coming Thursday.” Continue Reading..

Also be sure to catch Telstar’s previous post: Exploring the Ghost Ship SS Independence

Edward Burtynsky makes a wish: that his images — stunning landscapes that document humanity’s impact on the world — help persuade millions to join a global conversation on sustainability. A Canadian by birth Burtynsky’s most famous photographs are sweeping views of scarred or altered landscapes of foreign countries. He was invited to China to photograph the construction of the Three Gorges Dam project. The grand, inspiring beauty of these images is often in tension with the troubled environments they depict.

Of interest to mariners are the following online galleries of his work:

Ships – Container Ports
Ships – Ship Breaking
Oil – Oil Refineries
China – Three Gorges Dam
China – Shipyards
China – Coal and Steel
China – Urban Renewal

To find out more about his work click HERE to see the video of his 2005 presentation to TED.

Update: Also see Andrew Bell’s Shipbreaking Gallery