NGO Shipbreaking Platform: 80% of scrapped ships in 2024 dismantled under sub-par and high-risk conditions

Despite ongoing concerns over unsafe and environmentally damaging shipbreaking practices, in 2024, 80% of the global vessel tonnage scrapped—totaling 255 out of 409 dismantled ships—was broken under substandard conditions on the beaches of South Asia, Belgian NGO Shipbreaking Platform has found.

Notwithstanding the grave consequences for workers, with nine people losing their lives and another 45 suffering injuries, local communities and vulnerable coastal ecosystems, Bangladesh remains the shipping industry’s go-to choice for scrapping, followed by India and Pakistan, the NGO said.

According to the organization, one of the most harrowing accidents last year was the explosion of the oil tanker MT Suvarna Swarajya in Chattogram, Bangladesh, which occurred on September 7, 2024.

The tanker was owned by automation company S.N. Corporation which, in spite of the reported poor health and safety records with at least 14 deaths and 22 injuries since 2010, bought the vessel from cash buyer Best Oasis’ subsidiary Last Voyage DMCC in May 2023.

During the dismantling process of the tanker, a massive explosion happened in the Unit-2 yard, claiming the lives of six workers and leaving six others with ‘life-threatening’ injuries. Ensuing investigations revealed severe negligence and disregard for safety protocols and inadequate hazardous waste management, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform shared.

Following the investigation in the aftermath of the tragedy, SN Corporation reportedly lost its environmental clearance in Bangladesh.

“That a facility such as SN Corporation – and the more than 100 beaching yards that have similarly obtained Statements of Compliance – supposedly fulfills the requirements of the Hong Kong Convention says much about the low standards set by the IMO,” Ingvild Jenssen, Executive Director and Founder of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform emphasized.

“And while the IMO also ignores all that happens outside the facility gate – including whether or not there is adequate medical emergency response, and capacity to handle all toxic waste streams in a safe and environmentally sound manner – now, even yards that are not licensed to operate nationally maintain their Statement of Compliance,” she added.

As per the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, the 2024 Dumpers List was topped by China with more than fifty Chinese ships having been sold to South Asian shipbreakers, primarily in Bangladesh. As explained, this comes despite the waste import ban in China—where beaching is forbidden—and the country’s own capacity to recycle vessels in dry-dock facilities.

Moreover, the NGO revealed that more than a dozen vessels were also beached by shipping companies with headquarters in Russia, Switzerland, the Philippines, and South Korea.

As disclosed, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform has alerted the South Korean authorities of the illegal export of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker HL Pyeongtaek, which was sold to Best Oasis and is now on its way to South Asia for scrapping.

It is understood that, over the course of last year, no less than 13 units were exported from South Korea to India and Bangladesh.

Per international law, however, all transboundary movements of hazardous waste, including end-of-life ships, need to obtain prior informed consent (PIC) in line with the Basel Convention, and exports of end-of-life ships from OECD to non-OECD countries are banned, the NGO underscored.

The organization also cast the spotlight on the fact that export in breach of the Basel Convention is considered a serious environmental crime as witnessed by an array of cases brought to European Courts.

This encompasses those in Germany and Norway where the country’s vessel management company Altera Infrastructure was recently fined for the illegal export of several units—such as the two shuttle tankers Navion Britannia and Alexita Spirit—for scrapping in India.

In regards to Altera Infrastructure in particular, at the beginning of December 2024, the company accepted the 8 million NOK (circa $720,048) penalty for the scrapping of the units in Alang, despite initially contesting the fine.

What is more, for the second year in a row, as informed, Switzerland-based container vessel titan Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) received the title of “Worst Corporate Dumper”, with 16 of its ships allegedly beached in India in 2024.

The company is said to have ignored ‘repeated’ calls from the platform urging the Swiss player to adopt a “sustainable recycling policy”, especially given the fact that MSC is considered the “one single owner” responsible for the export of the highest number of toxic end-of-life ships to South Asia, with more than 100 units beached since 2009.

As reported, other companies—such as Norwegian Green Reefers, the Philippines-based Span Asia Carrier and South Korea’s Sinokor—contributed to the shipping industry’s hazardous footprint, having sold their end-of-life ships for scrapping at some of the world’s most dangerous yards in 2024.

For instance, Dubai-based Lila Global, acting as the ship-owning arm of cash buyer GMS, sent its vessels to the worst yards in Bangladesh and Pakistan, going ‘directly’ against its sustainability claims and greenwashing services, NGO Shipbreaking Platform said.

Within the oil and gas sector, in 2024, the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) adopted new decommissioning guidelines urging its members to avoid beaching and intermediaries such as cash buyers.

While companies like Petrobras, SBM, and Shell are believed to already enforce no-beaching policies, the NGO highlighted that offshore firms Perenco and BW Offshore have nevertheless sold a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel and a floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit to beaching yards in Bangladesh and India, respectively.

In 2022, the platform reported a fatal accident at India’s Priya Blue shipbreaking yard during the dismantling of another BW Offshore asset, which the company claimed was “unrelated to the recycling of former BW Offshore FPSOs at the yard” that had been ongoing at the time.

This came just three years after another deadly accident at Priya Blue Industries. That same year, i.e. in 2019, Dutch investigative program Zembla discovered the shocking conditions under which the scrapping of the mercury-laden FSO tanker Yetagun was performed at another site owned by Priya Blue.

With the shipping industry more and more keen to see beaching yards receiving their stamps of approval by the Hong Kong Convention—set to enter force in June 2025—the European Union has yet to reveal proposals for strengthening its EU Ship Recycling Regulation, the NGO stressed.

As elaborated, unannounced inspections by the European Commission of EU-approved facilities in Türkiye have unearthed discrepancies between paper plans and actual practice, leading to several yards being removed from the EU list.

Furthermore, high levels of pollution in the Aliaga region have now pushed legal action by Turkish civil society organizations urging the sector to undergo a ‘proper’ environmental impact assessment, according to the Belgian NGO.

Similar battles are taking place across the Atlantic. In Canada, the residents of Union Bay have been in a prolonged struggle against unregulated shipbreaking activities and ‘insufficient’ government measures, related to the dismantling of the asbestos-laden NOAAS Miller Freeman and NOAAS Surveyor at Baynes Sound under the ownership of the ‘infamous’ shipbreaking firm Deep Water Recovery (DWR), which has ‘persisted in its effort’ despite multiple violations flagged by local authorities.

Reflecting on the reality of things, Jenssen remarked: “The Basel Convention recommended the phasing out of the beaching method 20 years ago and calls for full containment of pollutants and their environmentally sound management all the way to disposal. It also regulates, even bans in some cases, the international trade of hazardous wastes with an eye to protecting vulnerable communities and environments.“

“We strongly encourage enforcement authorities globally to take actions that will effectively hold the shipping sector liable for committing serious environmental crimes, and call on policymakers to safeguard the environmental justice principles that are at the heart of the Basel Convention,” she concluded.