CONTAINER: ShippingWatch visits one of the most controversial places in the shipping industry, India's shipbreaking facilities on the beaches of Alang. After banning this location, Maersk has changed its mind and now sends end-of-life vessels to Alang. See all the pictures here from an otherwise very closed-off workplace. BY LOUISE VOGDRUP-SCHMIDT Published 06.10.16 at 15:15 ALANG 15 helmet-clad men with bare feet and their pants rolled up to their knees start trenching very slowly into the mud left behind by the tidewater. Several of the men use canes to feel the ground under their feet and they are all carrying a long metal wire. The wire must be carried into the water to a passenger vessel that is set in the mud almost 150 meters out. The wiry chain will be fastened to the vessel, and when the tidewater returns, the ship can be pulled onto the beach where it will be recycled and dismantled.
ShippingWatch has arrived at the shipping industry's perhaps most criticized workplace, which is also what many would consider a dark spot on the conscience of shipowners. This may be why it is so difficult to gain access to one of the many shipbreaking facilities along the beaches of Alang. If you do not work there and you are not a customer there, you need a special permit from Gujarat Maritime Board, the maritime authority in the state of Gujarat where Alang is located. INSIDE ALANG This week, ShippingWatch is in Alang, India to get a closer look at the ship recycling industry after Maersk Group decided to scrap vessels here for years to come. This decision has prompted massive criticism of the Danish shipping group. In the next article, we talk to Maersk about why the shipping group changed its stance on Alang. The psychedelic scenario of huge hulls on the beach has thus been off limits for both Indian and international journalists, NGOs, foreign unions, and other Alang stakeholders since the beach became a scrapping hub in 1983, in line with the other two major Asian ship graveyards in Pakistan and Bangladesh. In front of a vessel, a flock of wild dogs runs around the beach, barking. On both sides, as far as the eye can see, vessel parts and entire vessels are scattered on the dark sand. Some of the ships have just arrived and they look as though they simply sailed straight onto the beach. Other vessels show clear signs of dismantling. Slowly but surely. Welding flames and the sound of hammering dominates the beach, which stretches more than 10 kilometers and is home to about 170 yards. Try a free 14-day trial subscription to ShippingWatch It is at least 30 degrees Celsius and the stench of burnt metal mixes with the smell of hot asphalt and rotten garbage stinging the nose. Many workers sit so high up on the vessels that one can only barely see their helmets. Reputable names in shipping such as Gearbulk are visible on hulls along with lesser known names. Next to the yard, from which the workers are headed into the water, lies the yard YS Investments. This yard has just conducted its most recent audit in a process of several audits, completed by the classification company NK Class, as the yard has applied for the so-calles Hong Kong certification. This would certify that the yard complies with the standards of the Hong Kong Convention, the IMO's convention for responsible ship recycling. The convention has yet to come into force, but Panama recently gave the convention a major boost, and Denmark plans to ratify it next year.
There is no hiding the fact that an audit has recently taken place, as a cement foundation has been laid under the whole yard, as explained by Managing Director Naeem Masani, and especially because new walls have just been built and freshly painted, shielding the shipyard from competitors.
Naeem Masani, General Manager, YS Investments "We would very much like to be Hong Kong-certified. This work has also meant an upgrade of our employees' safety training. We have already felt the impact of this, in the sense that when workers feel more safe, they have more confidence and work is simply performed faster and more efficiently," says Naeem Masani. Five yards have been granted certification while at least 12 others have submitted applications. This is the process which, according to Maersk, legitimizes the company's decision to send end-of-life vessels to be scrapped in Alang.
Chetan Patel, Director, Shree Ram Yard One of the yards which has already obtained certification is the Shree Ram Yard, headed by Director Chetan Patel. This was the yard to which Maersk sent the vessels Maersk Georgia and Maersk Wyoming to be scrapped while the media watched and the political debate intensified.
The two vessels arrived at Shree Ram this spring, and their recycling is expected completed within the next four to five months. Maersk projects that many more vessels will be scrapped from the group's different segments during the next five years, and that scrapping will take place in Alang to a much larger extent than before, the Maersk Group's Head of Sustainability, Anette Stube, tells ShippingWatch in Alang. The issue is also financial, as Maersk receives more money per vessel by selling them to be scrapped in Alang, as opposed to the previously used shipbreaking facilities in China and Turkey, where ship recycling is conducted in an entirely different manner. This was the point of departure for the Maersk Group last year when it began to investigate the possibilities of scrapping in Alang by hiring an employee to exclusively handle customer contact between Maersk and the shipyards, and to make weekly visits to the facilities - an initiative that has now been expanded to including yet another employee and two permanently affiliated consultants. This is the reason Maersk now refers to Alang as "the best opportunity to meet commercial needs in a responsible manner." The partnership between Maersk and Shree Ram has been close-knit in the past six months, and both parties are looking to communicate the message that commercial interests are not the only thing at stake. A large sign, which looks brand new, is the first thing that meets the eye when walking onto Shree Ram Yard. "Safety before business," reads the sign. To meet the new requirements, Shree Ram Yard has poured a solid concrete foundation for scrapping, which reaches almost all the way to the water. Another indication of the yard's upgrade the workers' accommodations, which have been renovated.
These accommodations are home to 83 of the yard's almost 100 workers. Housing at Shree Ram Yard Aside from this, the slum areas of the region are mostly what stand out to potential visitors. Of the total 22,000 workers in Alang, many sleep on the ground or in beds consisting of boards under a roof of cardboard and tarp held down by rocks. One of the neighborhoods where the majority of Alang sleeps at night New housing has been built for 1,000 workers, but water installations are not ready and the buildings are not entirely complete, so they remaind empty at this point. There are also doubts as to whether these accommodations will be used anytime soon. Furthermore, it has yet to be decided how to select which workers will live in the buildings. New housing, waiting to be inhabited The Indian union ASSRGWA was given the opportunity to have an office in Alang in 2005. The Director of the Alang office, Ram Patel, tells ShippingWatch that two things are at the top of the agenda for workers in Alang. Ram Patel, head of the ASSRGWA union in Alang Ram Patel works in the dismantling of CO2 systems on the vessels at the yards. He says that the first issue is that workers are usually not paid on a set date each month. There should be security for workers in knowing that their wages be paid between the 5th and 7th of the month. The second thing concerns the union's desire for workers to be paid with checks instead of cash. This would make it easier for them to prove in the long run that they ever worked at the yards, for instance if they need retirement funds paid out. ASSRGWA otherwise focuses on worker safety. The safety standards are generally too low at the yards, in spite of all yard workers completing a mandatory safety course. The course previously took three days and has been mandatory since 2003. This February, the course was extended to six days. This is the only formal training that workers receive and perhaps the only education some of them have ever had. A worker was killed as recently as last week when he fell from a vessel at yard number 107 in Alang. His clothes got caught in some material which he was moving from the vessel high up, resulting in the fatal fall. Ram Patel has an insistent look from under a worn out hat: "We had a memorial ceremony for him and the yard was closed for five days after the incident. It's good that there are yards trying to upgrade to Hong Kong standards, and it's good that shipping companies are coming to Alang, as the shipbreaking sector here wants to take part in an environmentally friendly and safe transition, but these are just baby steps on a long road ahead," he says. ShippingWatch was invited to Alang by the Maersk Group. In the next article, we talk to Maersk about why the shipping group changed its stance on Alang.
NGO Shipbreaking Platform: Investigative Journalists Catch Maersk Red-Handed In Alang
Investigative journalists from Danwatch today release their comprehensive report on the reality inside Shree Ram shipbreaking yard in Alang, India, where the Maersk Georgia and Maersk Wyoming are currently being dismantled. The in-depth investigations reveal breaches of labour rights, workers exposed to grave risks for their health and safety, and severe environmental pollution caused by the breaking of ships in the intertidal zone. The story first came out on Sunday in the Danish newspaper Politiken, and has been covered widely in Danish media. The investigation not only confirms the serious concerns with the beaching method which the NGO Shipbreaking Platform has been voicing all along, but it shows that Maersk’s shipbreaking practices do not even remotely meet the standard the company has set for itself.
“The unacceptable conditions in the beaching facility in Alang which Maersk has been praising for its alleged high standards can no longer be ignored. Journalists have documented workers without contracts and men endangering their health and lives when exposed to toxic fumes and risks of explosions when torch-cutting in only T-shirts. When asked about the environmental impact of their activities in Alang, the world’s leading ship owner does not have an answer. Maersk’s trial and error approach in India is seriously flawed. The conditions under which the Maersk ships are being broken are even worse than what we expected,” says Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the Platform.
Image Credits: shipbreakingplatform.org
The Platform and the Clean Shipping Coalition have strongly criticised Maersk for its U-turn from state-of-the-art ship recycling back to the beaching yards in India. Over many months, the Platform has shared its concerns with the shipping line. The Platform’s detailed critique of the Maersk “Responsible Ship Recycling Standard” highlights why the Standard is far too weak to ensure the health and safety of workers and to provide safeguards against pollution.
Not only have NGOs warned Maersk of the serious risks, the shipping line itself commissioned a report on the pitfalls of breaking ships in the intertidal zone. Danish consultancy Litehauz highlighted severe pollution risks and the lack of solutions on the Alang beaches. The report clearly states that huge investments to build adequate infrastructure would be necessary in Alang, and questions the commercial viability of investing in beaching yards, especially because some of the problems are likely to be impossible to solve in the intertidal zone. Despite the warnings, Maersk chose to ignore the concerns of environmental and human rights experts.
“Maersk expects to make an extra profit of 150 million USD by selling off an estimated 70-100 ships to the beaching yards. While masking their U-turn as a ‘good deed’ for India, Maersk has not invested a single penny in new infrastructure in Alang”, says Patrizia Heidegger. “Instead of pocketing this huge extra profit, the world’s largest ship owner should just stick to its previous off-the-beach policy. And if Maersk wants to support a real shift in India, why are they not investing this amount in a state-of-the-art facility off the beach?”
Danish experts with whom the journalists have shared their documentation were shocked to see the serious risks for workers’ health and safety as well as the grave environmental impact of Maersk’s practices in Alang. Had this happened in Denmark, the yard would have been closed on the spot, they say. The UN Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights, Baskut Tuncak, also emphasises that the beaching method by its nature does not allow for environmentally sound practices.
Only last December Shree Ram received a Statement of Compliance with the Hong Kong Convention from the Japanese classification society ClassNK. Such statements have been used by industry stakeholders to claim vast improvements in Alang and that the beaching method is able to provide acceptable levels of environmental protection. Shree Ram is supposed to be one of the “best” yards in Alang. The Danwatch revelations clearly show the wide discrepancy between the industry’s greenwashed presentation of Alang and the factual conditions in the yards. ClassNK did not want to comment on the breaches found by the journalists, but has earlier stated that their certification of four Alang yards is only based on procedural checks, not performance.
Members of the Danish Parliament, led by Pia Olsen Dyhr, former Minister of Trade and Transport, now request the Environment Minister to respond to whether Maersk has put pressure on the Danish government to promote the Alang beaching yards at the European level. Beaching is banned in Denmark and the rest of the EU. A new Regulation at the EU level asks the European Commission to publish a list of acceptable ship recycling facilities globally. Shree Ram is known to have applied to be on that list, but is not expected to be approved. The findings of the investigations by Danwatch and Politiken render this impossible.
“The findings at Shree Ram show how meaningless statements of compliance with the Hong Kong Convention are, and underlines that the Alang yards come nowhere close to providing the safeguards needed to ensure truly clean and safe ship recycling”, says Patrizia Heidegger. “The lobbyist of beaching have been cornered with their green-washing. In light of these revelations, their attempts to put pressure on the European Commission to list these beaching yards as acceptable seem even more pitiable”.
Reference: shipbreakingplatform.org
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