as logic, the ships that are no longer used, generally because their operating costs are no longer convenient or because they do not find buyers in the market of the used, are purchased to be scrapped in the demolition yards.
in these yards are extracted and recycled the materials obtained from demolition, mainly the steel coming from the hull. We start on a assumption, demolitions cost and cost a lot. This is a business for the company entrusted only if there are certain conditions i.e. use of cheap infrastructure, low maintenance and safety costs, low cost labor, efficient recycling facilities.
If these conditions persist, the armor company receives about $300 per tonne so for the concord it would be about €26,000,000. but these conditions are difficult to obtain in Italy or even in Europe.
the demolition of the ships has become with the years a big problem because it puts in play the entire cost of the fleet market. in fact every demolition should involve the construction of new ships and, if you build new larger ships, the economy of scale leads to demolish the older ones by triggering a vicious circle. but in periods of economic crisis demand falls and with it liquidity. the shipowners, thanks to incentives and funds, continue to build new units but without dismantle the old ones that are sent where to demolish it costs very little. are many and different reasons why it is difficult to make the recycling of ships economically profitable and at the same time compatible with environmental standards: the variability of the goods market (which mainly uses oil tankers and bulk door); the diversity of materials with which ships are built and the fact that some of them are hardly reusable (composed materials) or are no longer used or are prohibited (such as asbestos on older units); sometimes expensive treatment of recycling of certain materials.
for these reasons most demolition yards are located in southern Asia (especially in India and bangladesh). if it is considered that a maneuver is paid 2$ per day, that there are huge differences about the costs derived from the protection of the environment and health seen "indulgence" on the disposal of toxic waste, that you get substantial gains from recycling and selling of used materials (marketed by us non-existent), it is explained why the operators of southern Asia can offer much more advantageous prices to the owners of the ships compared to the potential competitors of other countries, especially. labor comes from areas of extreme poverty and is constituted largely by minors without any protection or insurance.
There is no system to prevent soil contamination resulting in a very serious pollution of water and beaches, there is a high number of accidents due mainly to gas explosions from hydrocarbons and the fall of demolished material, incurable diseases due to the absorption of highly dangerous substances.
Thus in the last twenty/three years the number of demolitors in the ue has fallen considerably so that in the ue and ocse (Turkey laws) now only military units are demolished and also we call it "specialization" does not seem to have long-term prospects. It's a problem that's going to get worse because, for example, all single-hull tankers have to be withdrawn and demolished.
until not many years ago the sad primacy was up to alang, place in the gulf of cambay, the largest port of demolition of the ships in India, the third of the world after the cina and the bangladesh. It is a Dantesque group considered the black beast of the ecologists (google maps, it is impressive).
They demolish up to 180 ships per year and at the rate of one every three months, hundreds of workers armed with cannello cut, disassembled, shredded, decomposing in smaller and smaller pieces. around the women are loaded with a door, of furnishings, chairs, tables, and along eleven kilometers of sandy coast, the scene is repeated for a hundred yards improvised. so disappears a ferry, a portacontainer, a gasier, an oil tanker.. .
today the race to modernity that crosses the india to rendere alang less competitive than the bangladesh that took away her primacy. to alang now has descended to 40 ships a year that continue to give job to 5000 workers and to the 40,000 people who gravitate there for which it appears unlikely to be its closure despite Chinese competition, made of greater technology and work hand at still lower costs.
Beyond that it is india, cina or bangladesh, it still seems a lost battle at the start. the demolition of the ships in fact, has been regulated since 1992 by the Convention of basil on the cross-border movements of dangerous waste and despite that the EU prohibits the export of the ships to be demolished outside the OECD countries, the india and other countries do not dream at least to respect the rules. for a country that tries to adapt itself, there is immediately another ready to take advantage of it.
is the case of the " koala probo", a ship of the oil company "trafigure" used for the processing of oil waste through a procedure banned in almost all countries of the world. in 2006 the ship of the poisons attempts to dock in Dutch but is rejected so it becomes indispensable to find a quick and economic way to get rid of the cargo. a "disposal company" is contacted on ivory coast and with very few scruples. the ship broke first for Estonian and then for the capital of the ivory coast where it pours into sea huge amounts of toxic materials (580 tons) causing over 100,000 intoxicated. trafigura manages to avoid the court behind the payment of $198 million compensation. A legal action was then initiated at London and the transfigure pleaded for $1,500 to 31,000 victims. Meanwhile the ship of the poisons is renamed "gulf jash" and sent in bangladesh for the demolition that however rejects it and now it is necessary to find another place to demolish it.
The market therefore moves towards more unfair countries such as Pakistan, less concerned with environmental and social relapses and where, indeed, it seems that working conditions are the worst in the world.
