On the heels of yesterdays post about the ship breaking operations at the Gadani Ship Breaking yard in Pakistan, this video, produced by the International Maritime Organization, explains what they are doing to make the ship breaking industry more safe and environmentally friendly.

The video goes on to explain the Hong Kong Convention, which is aimed at ensuring that ships do not pose any unnecessary risks to human health, safety and to the environment after they have reached the end of their lives.

The Hong Kong Convention intends to address all the issues around ship recycling, including the fact that ships sold for scrapping may contain environmentally hazardous substances such as asbestos, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, ozone-depleting substances and others. It also addresses concerns raised about the working and environmental conditions at many of the world’s ship recycling locations. Keep Reading

Here’s a video of the ship breaking operations at the Gadani Ship Breaking Yard in Pakistan.  At one point, the yard was the largest ship-breaking yard in the world but today holds the number 3 spot next to Alang, India and Chittagong, Bangladesh.

Thousands of laborers risk their lives daily to earn about $4 per day and produce up to 1 million tons of scrap metal annually, which is sold mostly in the domestic market.  In fact, ship-breaking at Gadani produced about 70 percent of the country’s steel requirement in 2011, according to Reuters.

Ship-breaking at Gadani is inherently dangerous and suffers severely from lax safety standards and unregulated working conditions which of course leads to high injury and death rates.

The absence of adequate safety measures at the Gadani Ship-breaking Yard has resulted in five deaths and 13 injuries since January 1, 2012. These accidents are primarily because the workers are not being provided with medical facilities or safety gear such as helmets and boots which could possibly prevent such accidents.

The Gadani Ship-breaking Yard is currently experiencing high levels of activity, with scores of ships being dismantled at the yard every day. However, because of the lack of medical facilities and safety equipment, there have been numerous cases of deaths and injuries. – ShipbreakingPlatform.org

Ship breaking at Gadani, Pakistan. Photo (c) Tomàs Halda 2010

Photo Gallery – Gadani, Pakistan 2010

Below, an interactive Google map allows you to explore the ghost ships that rest along the beach at Gadani.

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Image via Wikipedia by Naquib Hossain

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)–The Baltic Dry Index, the bellwether gauge of rates for ship dry commodities including grains, iron ore and coal, will likely find support for the rest of the year from Chinese demand and an expected increase in ship scrapping, a senior shipping executive said Wednesday.

The index plunged to a 26-year low of 647 points in February as new ships were put into operation. Bad weather in Brazil and Australia as well as the Chinese New Year also hurt global trade, Precious Shipping PCL (PSL.TH) Managing Director Khalid Moinuddin Hashim said.

The gauge has rebounded since then, closing at 1,152 points Tuesday on the London-based Baltic Exchange, reflecting increased confidence in demand from China, he said, tipping the metric to stay in the 800-1,200 range through the end of the year.

China’s iron ore imports in the first quarter of this year totaled 187 million metric tons, up 6% compared with a year earlier, while coal imports totaled 50.3 million tons , up 58%.

This growth has taken place against the backdrop of a slowing Chinese economy, a very low BDI average and an official forecast of an annual GDP growth of just 7.5% for 2012, well below the 9.2% growth seen in 2011, Hashim noted.

Things could be looking up datawise, Hashim added, referring to HSBC‘s monthly manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, which rose to 49.3 in April compared with 48.3 in March. While the reading, issued Wednesday, is in contractionary territory, the uptick may signal a soft landing and continuing demand for raw materials in the world’s second-largest economy.

Khalid Moinuddin Hashim, Managing Director, Precious Shipping

The slippage rate–the number of new ships delayed at shipyards or deferred by owners–is likely to reach 50% this year compared with 28% in 2011, supporting freight rates, Hashim said. An increase in ship tonnage slated to be scrapped, to about 50 million deadweight tons in 2012, will also help freight rates, as it will partially offset new builds, meaning that the dry bulk fleet may grow by just 3.3% this year compared with earlier expectations of 10% growth, he added.

Precious Shipping, Thailand’s leading dry-bulk shipper, owns 30 vessels and aims to double its fleet by 2014, Hashim said.

-By Surabhi Sahu, Dow Jones Newswires

Boom is placed around a salvaged container ship after an oil leak is discovered on the south branch of the Elizabeth River, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)

A Virginia ship scrapping company and two of its owners have plead guilty to various environmental crimes stemming from their activities in the ship scrapping business.

According to court documents, Steven Avery, 56, of Bohannon, VA, and Billy Avery, 81, of Virginia Beach, VA, operated Sea Solutions, Inc., a VA-based ship scrapping business, and in February 2010 purchased the vessel M/V Snow Bird for the purpose of scrapping with the knowledge that it contained a quantity of petroleum products and other pollutants.   Despite knowing that these waste products were onboard the vessel and needed to be removed, the men commenced scrapping operations with the pollutants onboard.  Over the course of several months, witnesses complained of pollutants emanating from the M/V Snow Bird and finally, in October of 2010, the defendants caused a major spill of oil, oily water, and other pollutants from the operation into the Elizabeth River.  The cleanup operation removed several thousand gallons of oily waste from the Elizabeth River and the shoreline at the cost to the United States of over $66,000.

“America’s waterways must be protected from companies that look to cut corners by discharging oily waste water illegally,” said David G. McLeod, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) criminal enforcement program in Virginia.  “Improper waste disposal endangers not only the environment but human health.  EPA is committed to making sure criminal violations of environmental laws are not tolerated.”

Steven and Billy Avery each face a minimum 30 days and a maximum of 1 year in prison and, through Sea Solutions, Inc., could be forced to pay a fine of up to a $500,000 and five years of probation.  The sentencing will take place on July 12, 2012.

The Graveyard of Giants by Jan Møller Hansen – Click the photo to access the full gallery

S hip breaking in Bangladesh started back in 1960 when the Bay of Bengal was struck by a cyclone, which left a giant cargo ship beached near the sea shore of Fauzdarhat near Chittagong. The ship owners abandoned the wreck, and local metal workers slowly began to scrounge it for scrap metal and material. In 1974, a salvaged Pakistani navy vessel, which was sunk during the Bangladeshi liberation war, was scrapped by Karnafully Metal Works. These two incidences are considered to be the beginning of the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh.

The ship breaking industry gradually grew since then, and by the mid 80s Bangladesh had become one of the major ship breaking nations in the world. Some of the world’s largest decommissioned ships are today scraped at the shores north of Chittagong, which is the second largest city and major sea port in the country. Environmental policies and laws were not enforced, labour salaries were among the lowest in the world and there were no standards for occupational health and labour safety. Obviously there were plenty of opportunities to exploit people and the environment when moving forward with the ship breaking business.

Ship breaking on the beach, which already at that time was prohibited in most countries, could be done in Bangladesh without any concern. Poverty and millions of people without education were looking for livelihood opportunities. They provided cheap and exploitable human man power needed for the ship breaking industry. No major investments were required for engaging in ship breaking.

The present type of ship breaking in Bangladesh just require a large winch, some blowtorches and maybe a bulldozer. Rest of the operation is just raw human man power. Labour is extremely cheap, environmental and labour standards are loosely applied and no pre-cleaning of the ships are required for entering the ship breaking beach in Chittagong. Ship breaking is therefore a lucrative business with few risks for the yard owners, investors and money lenders.

The ship breaking industry in Bangladesh is estimated worth an annual turn over of around 1.5 billion dollars. Globally some 700 ocean-going vessels are scrapped each year, and more than 100 of them are scrapped in Bangladesh. Some of the ships are 350 meter long with a weight up to 10-15.000 tons. It is estimated that app. 30 percent of the world’s Light Displacement Tonnes (LDT) were scrapped in Bangladesh during the period 2000-2010. Since then the business has been slightly declining due to the global recession and more strict enforcement of national laws and regulations. But the business is now picking up again, and the number of ship yards increases year by year.

Ship breaking generates a lot of jobs, and it is estimated that some 30-50.000 people are directly employed in the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh. Additionally, another 100.000 are indirectly involved in the business. Most of the labourers are hired by the ship yards through local contractors on a ship by ship basis. A labourer earns around 1-3 dollars per day depending on the type of work. Some 300-500 people are typically employed on a temporary basis for dismantling a ship, and many more are employed in downstream activities for recycling of all kind of materials from the ships.

Some of the recycled materials are exported, and the rest is sold of and reused in Bangladesh. A lot of the materials are of high value to the local economy. In particular, recycling of steel for producing iron rods for construction, plates for new ships or for many other purposes is a lucrative business. Up to 70-80 percent of the steel used in Bangladesh is believed to originate from the ship breaking yards in Chittagong. One of the most valuable parts of a ship is the propeller, which is often worth 50.000-100.000 dollars. Propellers and other high value items are exported to other countries.

It is estimated that there are around 100 ship breaking yards along the coast north of Chittagong, and every year new yards are being constructed. The ship yards are owned by politicians and business people.

The ship breaking practices applied in Bangladesh are strictly prohibited by most countries in the world due to very dangerous nature of the work and the huge environmental implications. It is the so-called beaching method that is being used in Bangladesh. The ship is sailed with maximum speed during the high tide and will be beached over the flat muddy land where it is completely dismantled by semi- and unskilled labourers during the low tide. Beaching is considered a specialised operation. The captain on board has to calculate the movement of the tides, the swell and the wind by the minute. The closer the ship is beached to the shore, the more profitable it becomes for the ship yard owner. The gigantic ships are ripped apart by blowtorches and large steel parts are taken to shore with use of electric winches. Most work is done by raw human man power.

One might think that a ship to be scrapped has no value and is a liability rather than an asset. But on the contrary, the scrapping business is so lucrative that the ship breakers are paying for receiving the ships to be scrapped. A ship breaker will typically buy a ship to be scrapped for around 4-10 million dollars depending on the size and quality of the ship. The purchase of a ship is often done through a middleman, who links the local buyers with the international sellers. The ship breaker takes a loan in a local bank often with a high interest rate, and the full loan is repaid in six months time when the ship is completely ripped apart and all the scrap is sold to international and national buyers. Outdated and scrapped ships, which previously where a liability, is now a great asset.

Working in the ship breaking yards is a very dangerous job, which involves many human health risks. Workers are often exposed to asbestos used for insulation in older ships and from paint containing lead, cadmium and arsenic. It is not seldom that workers die caused by gas poisoning or explosions and fires. Old ships are imported without pre-cleaning or removal of toxic gases and dangerous materials. Each ship contains an average of 7000 – 8000 kilo of asbestos and 10 – 100 tons of lead paint.

Sometimes gases explode killing workers. It also happens that workers are crushed by tumbling or falling steel parts. Sometimes workers fall from the high sides of ships on which they are working without safety harnesses. Many of the oxyacetylene cutters work without goggles. Few wear shoes, let alone protective clothing. Local organisations in Bangladesh estimate that some 1000-2000 workers have died in the last 30 years, and many more have suffered serious injuries. General health statistics show that the percentage of people with disabilities in the Chittagong area is above average for the country as a whole, because many workers have lost limbs or got other disabilities from working in the ship breaking yards.

The labourers lack basic equipment. When a new ship arrives, there are containers, chambers and tanks, which contain oil, petroleum and poisonous gases. One method used for checking the level of danger in these parts of the ship is to lower down chickens in a string to check whether there are dangerous gases. If the chickens survive, the first workers will enter to clean for oil, petroleum and other flammable substances. The flammable substances are often burned off before the cutters enter to rip the ship apart. Gas explosions is a common phenomenon.

It is estimated that half of the workers are under 22 years and nearly half of them are illiterate. Some believe that up to around 20 percent of the total work force consist of children. The workers are poor and they have no other alternatives for supporting themselves and their families than to work in the ship breaking yards. There are often no other job alternatives for them. The workers do not know much about rules and regulations on basic occupational health standards and safety. The labourers or their families are poorly compensated when injured or killed.

The Government of Bangladesh has recently introduced new national policies and legislation to improve the environmental and occupational health and safety standards in the ship breaking yards. But there is a long way to go. Governance is poor, and enforcement of policies and laws is often non-existent. Politicians and decision makers have vested interests in the industry, and corruption is wide spread making it difficult to enforce rules and regulations.

In recent years, the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh has been declining due to the global recession and the introduction of new tougher national policies and regulation. But the industry scents morning air. Critics claim that an international convention on ship recycling adopted by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in January 2010 perpetuates hazardous and polluting ship breaking on the beaches of the world’s poorest countries, while obstructing transitions to safer and greener forms of ship recycling. An EU ban on single-hull tankers and phase-out regulations and an accelerated phasing-in of double-hulled oil tankers have also meant new business opportunities for the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh.

A number of new ship breaking yards are under construction on the beach north of Chittagong. One of the world’s largest middle men in the global ship breaking business, the owner of Global Marketing Systems, estimates that one third of the world’s ships need to be scrapped in the coming years. No doubt that the industry is gearing up for new business opportunities.

The workers in the ship breaking yards are clear on two things: that they will die early and that there have been no improvements over the last thirty years in terms of worker rights, health and safety.

In the exhibit you can see a few photos from the ship breaking beach in Chittagong.

Jan Møller Hansen is a self-taught and passionate photographer with a main interest in people and their lives. He takes pride in not having attended any formal education or training in photography. The photos in this gallery are from Chittagong, February 2012

The show aired on ABC’s popular saturday night lineup from 1977 till 1986 and was usually set aboard a cruise liner called the Pacific Princess. Other ships used for filming where the sister ship Island Princess as well as the Stella Solaris, Pearl of Scandinavia, the Royal Viking Sky and the Royal Princess and Sun Princess.

The ship began operation in 1971 with Flagship Cruises, under the name Sea Venture. During this period the vessel came to the rescue of the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, after the QE2 had major engine trouble. In April 1975 she was sold to P&O’s newly acquired Princess Cruises along with sister ship Island Venture. The pair were renamed Pacific Princess and Island Princess, the latter now operating as the Discovery.

But the sailing hasn’t been all smooth for the historic vessel. In 1998 the Pacific Princess was impounded by police in Piraeus, Greece after 25 kg of heroin was found on board, smuggled by two members of her crew. According to police sources quoted in the BBC report at the time, there was evidence the ship had become a major tool for drug smugglers in the Mediterranean.

Maritime Matters reports that the 20186 gt, 600 passenger M/V Pacific (ex Sea Venture and Pacific Princess) was sold last week for 2.5 million Euros to the Turkish company “Cemsan”, which specializes in ship breaking. The ship, built in 1971 and last owned and operated by V Ships Leisure, has been idle at Genoa’s San Giorgio del Porto shipyard since being seized by the Italian Coast Guard in 2009 and is currently non-operable as she waits for a final tow to the scrap yard.

Related Video

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ship breaking beach in Chittagong. (c) Jan Møller Hansen Photography

By Jan Møller Hansen

Ship breaking in Bangladesh started back in 1960 when the Bay of Bengal was struck by a cyclone, which left a giant cargo ship beached near the sea shore of Fauzdarhat near Chittagong. The ship owners abandoned the wreck, and local metal workers slowly began to scrounge it for scrap metal and material. In 1974, a salvaged Pakistani navy vessel, which was sunk during the Bangladeshi liberation war, was scrapped by Karnafully Metal Works. These two incidences are considered to be the beginning of the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh.

The ship breaking industry gradually grew since then, and by the mid 80s Bangladesh had become one of the major ship breaking nations in the world. Some of the world’s largest decommissioned ships are today scraped at the shores north of Chittagong, which is the second largest city and major sea port in the country. Environmental policies and laws were not enforced, labour salaries were among the lowest in the world and there were no standards for occupational health and labour safety. Obviously there were plenty of opportunities to exploit people and the environment when moving forward with the ship breaking business.

Ship breaking on the beach, which already at that time was prohibited in most countries, could be done in Bangladesh without any concern. Poverty and millions of people without education were looking for livelihood ooportunities. They provided cheap and exploitable human man power needed for the ship breaking industry. No major investments were required for engaging in ship breaking.

Photo Gallery: Ship breaking beach in Chittagong

The present type of ship breaking in Bangladesh just require a large winch, some blowtorches and maybe a bulldozer. Rest of the operation is just raw human man power. Labour is extremely cheap, environmental and labour standards are loosely applied and no pre-cleaning of the ships are required for entering the ship breaking beach in Chittagong. Ship breaking is therefore a lucrative business with few risks for the yard owners, investors and money lenders.

The ship breaking industry in Bangladesh is estimated worth an annual turn over of around 1.5 billion dollars. Globally some 700 ocean-going vessels are scrapped each year, and more than 100 of them are scrapped in Bangladesh. Some of the ships are 350 meter long with a weight up to 10-15.000 tons. It is estimated that app. 30 percent of the world’s Light Displacement Tonnes (LDT) were scrapped in Bangladesh during the period 2000-2010. Since then the business has been slightly declining due to the global recession and more strict enforcement of national laws and regulations. But the business is now picking up again, and the number of ship yards increases year by year.

Ship breaking generates a lot of jobs, and it is estimated that some 30-50.000 people are directly employed in the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh. Additionally, another 100.000 are indirectly involved in the business. Most of the labourers are hired by the ship yards through local contractors on a ship by ship basis. A labourer earns around 1-3 dollars per day depending on the type of work. Some 300-500 people are typically employed on a temporary basis for dismantling a ship, and many more are employed in downstream activities for recycling of all kind of materials from the ships.

Some of the recycled materials are exported, and the rest is sold of and reused in Bangladesh. A lot of the materials are of high value to the local economy. In particular, recycling of steel for producing iron rods for construction, plates for new ships or for many other purposes is a lucrative business. Up to 70-80 percent of the steel used in Bangladesh is believed to originate from the ship breaking yards in Chittagong. One of the most valuable parts of a ship is the propeller, which is often worth 50.000-100.000 dollars. Propellers and other high value items are exported to other countries.

It is estimated that there are around 100 ship breaking yards along the coast north of Chittagong, and every year new yards are being constructed. The ship yards are owned by politicians and business people.

The ship breaking practices applied in Bangladesh are strictly prohibited by most countries in the world due to very dangerous nature of the work and the huge environmental implications. It is the so-called beaching method that is being used in Bangladesh. The ship is sailed with maximum speed during the high tide and will be beached over the flat muddy land where it is completely dismantled by semi- and unskilled labourers during the low tide. Beaching is considered a specialised operation. The captain on board has to calculate the movement of the tides, the swell and the wind by the minute. The closer the ship is beached to the shore, the more profitable it becomes for the ship yard owner. The gigantic ships are ripped apart by blowtorches and large steel parts are taken to shore with use of electric winches. Most work is done by raw human man power.

One might think that a ship to be scrapped has no value and is a liability rather than an asset. But on the contrary, the scrapping business is so lucrative that the ship breakers are paying for receiving the ships to be scrapped. A ship breaker will typically buy a ship to be scrapped for around 4-10 million dollars depending on the size and quality of the ship. The purchase of a ship is often done through a middleman, who links the local buyers with the international sellers. The ship breaker takes a loan in a local bank often with a high interest rate, and the full loan is repaid in six months time when the ship is completely ripped apart and all the scrap is sold to international and national buyers. Outdated and scrapped ships, which previously where a liability, is now a great asset.

Working in the ship breaking yards is a very dangerous job, which involves many human health risks. Workers are often exposed to asbestos used for insulation in older ships and from paint containing lead, cadmium and arsenic. It is not seldom that workers die caused by gas poisoning or explosions and fires. Old ships are imported without pre-cleaning or removal of toxic gases and dangerous materials. Each ship contains an average of 7000 – 8000 kilo of asbestos and 10 – 100 tons of lead paint.

Sometimes gases explode killing workers. It also happens that workers are crushed by tumbling or falling steel parts. Sometimes workers fall from the high sides of ships on which they are working without safety harnesses. Many of the oxyacetylene cutters work without goggles. Few wear shoes, let alone protective clothing. Local organisations in Bangladesh estimate that some 1000-2000 workers have died in the last 30 years, and many more have suffered serious injuries. General health statistics show that the percentage of people with disabilities in the Chittagong area is above average for the country as a whole, because many workers have lost limbs or got other disabilities from working in the ship breaking yards.

The labourers lack basic equipment. When a new ship arrives, there are containers, chambers and tanks, which contain oil, petroleum and poisonous gases. One method used for checking the level of danger in these parts of the ship is to lower down chickens in a string to check whether there are dangerous gases. If the chickens survive, the first workers will enter to clean for oil, petroleum and other flammable substances. The flammable substances are often burned off before the cutters enter to rip the ship apart. Gas explosions is a common phenomenon.

It is estimated that half of the workers are under 22 years and nearly half of them are illiterate. Some believe that up to around 20 percent of the total work force consist of children. The workers are poor and they have no other alternatives for supporting themselves and their families than to work in the ship breaking yards. There are often no other job alternatives for them. The workers do not know much about rules and regulations on basic occupational health standards and safety. The labourers or their families are poorly compensated when injured or killed.

The Government of Bangladesh has recently introduced new national policies and legislation to improve the environmental and occupational health and safety standards in the ship breaking yards. But there is a long way to go. Governance is poor, and enforcement of policies and laws is often non-existent. Politicians and decision makers have vested interests in the industry, and corruption is wide spread making it difficult to enforce rules and regulations.

In recent years, the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh has been declining due to the global recession and the introduction of new tougher national policies and regulation. But the industry scents morning air. Critics claim that an international convention on ship recycling adopted by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in January 2010 perpetuates hazardous and polluting ship breaking on the beaches of the world’s poorest countries, while obstructing transitions to safer and greener forms of ship recycling. An EU ban on single-hull tankers and phase-out regulations and an accelerated phasing-in of double-hulled oil tankers have also meant new business opportunities for the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh.

A number of new ship breaking yards are under construction on the beach north of Chittagong. One of the world’s largest middle men in the global ship breaking business, the owner of Global Marketing Systems, estimates that one third of the world’s ships need to be scrapped in the coming years. No doubt that the industry is gearing up for new business opportunities.

The workers in the ship breaking yards are clear on two things: that they will die early and that there have been no improvements over the last thirty years in terms of worker rights, health and safety.

Jan Møller Hansen is a self-taught and passionate photographer with a main interest in people and their lives. He takes pride in not having attended any formal education or training in photography. The photos in this gallery are from Chittagong, February 2012

Crew Sticker From The USS Savannah

The USS Savannah (AOR-4), a Wichita-class tanker almost as long as two football fields, was operated by Military Sealift Command to refuel warships in the Mediterranean before she was decommissioned in 1995 and moored at the Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia.  She was eventually laid up in the National Defense Reserve Fleet, James River, Virginia.

In 1998 the ship, now streaked with rust and stripped of her most valuable parts, was struck from the Naval Register and transferred to the Maritime Administration for disposal. Over 10 years later the Department of Transportation finally signed a fee for service contract worth $515,726 with ESCO Marine of Brownsville, Texas, to scrap ex-Savannah.

The above video is a full HD nitty gritty look at the scrapping of this grey lady as featured on the television show Break It Down. Extensive footage of the ship is featured in the show including removal of the massive propeller and struggles with removing toxic items like asbestos prior to the full carnage of ripped steel.

[Via Jesus Diaz]

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.

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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.