Ship Breaking-Recycling, Old Cruise Ships

Shipbreaking (aka ship demolition) is the process of dismantling ships for scrap metal and recycling or disposal. Today the shipbreaking process takes place in a facility called a shipbreaking yard, while in the past scrapping ships took place in major port cities worldwide, and mostly in those of highly industrialized countries (UK, USA, Germany, Italy).

Ship dismantling includes numerous manual procedures and entirely excludes automation solutions, resulting in substantially higher labor costs. This is the primary reason today the largest shipbreaking yards to be located and operated in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and China - countries with extremely low labor costs and almost no environmental laws. Sources used in this survey include Wikipedia, cbc.ca, nbc.com, greenpeace.nl, osha.gov. The article is integrated with cruise shipbuilding cost, passenger capacity, vessel dimensions.

The following two internal links jump down directly to the shipbreakers/companies list and the list of old cruise ships - 40+years old vessels (built before 1990) and still in operation. For our list of dismantled vessels see at Scrapped Cruise Ships.

In 2017, the world's fleet included over 50,000 vessels, of which 835 were recycled.

Due to the COVID/global health crisis and IMO's new regulations (marine engine upgrades for using low-sulphur fuels and LNG), in 2020-2021 were scrapped 15 cruise ships - an unprecedented number in comparison to previous years, and even 5-year periods. In 2020, the average ship scrap metal (DWT) prices in Alang India rose to ~USD 400 per ton (from ~$200), in Aliaga (Turkey) - to ~USD 300 per ton (from ~$100). EU-flagged ships' scrap values were ~USD 100-200 per ton as these vessels require dismantling at EU-certified yards. Ship scrap prices in the USA were USD 80-90 per ton.

Shipbreaking

Shipbreaking is only one of several main ship disposal alternatives, also including hulking, floating or drydock storage, donation or sale for reuse, deep-water sinking and making artificial reefs (for detailed info check Ship Recycling). Having an average lifespan of 20-40 years (depending on ship type), most ships become obsolete when the repair and refitting become uneconomical for the owner. Generally, ships ready for scrapping are put up for sale by their owners and usually, the highest bidder wins the contract. Most of these already doomed vessels can make it to the scrapping yard under their own power, thus avoiding the not cheap charge for towing.

There are four major economic benefits of breaking ships for scrap and recycling that have made the breaking of ships a powerful industry:

1. Steel production - the scrapping of the ship is the country's main source of steel, it reduces the need to import steel materials, thus saving huge amounts of money.
2. A "green industry" - the ship breaking scrap signifies reusing and recycling of almost everything on the vessel and the vessel itself, providing raw materials to the steel industry, asbestos for re-manufacturing factories, even furniture, electrical and electronic equipment, lubricants, oil, etc.
3. The ship recycling industry generates large Government tax revenues mainly through import duties and the yards tax.
4. it provides employment for some of the poorest people of the world, who would otherwise have no employment at all.

But all these economic benefits should be considered together with the social and environmental costs. People live and work in the most primitive conditions, high levels of pollution (most ships are used to carry such hazardous materials, like radioactive and toxic wastes, poisonous chemicals and oil), severe contamination of the sea bed and the entire marine food chain.

Shipbreaking is one of the most hazardous jobs and among the world's most dangerous professions according to the International Labour Organization. In Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan there's an average of 1 serious accident per day and 1 death per week on the ship breaking yards, the main causes being falls, fire and explosions, suffocation, falling objects, and many workers contract cancers caused by asbestos and numerous other toxic substances. Still are not respected by the industry all orders to the yards to produce environmental certificates, pre-cleaning reports and to ban the import of ships for scrap that had not been decontaminated in the export country.

Ship breaking industry

Since the '80s, the industry almost entirely changed its main operational regions from strong-economy, highly industrialized countries (like Britain, USA, Germany) to some of the most impoverished regions in Asia.

The relocation process started in the late '50s, and while in the not so distant past ships for scrap were processed in major port cities of countries worldwide, today main factors in making business decisions in the ships breaking industry are the cheap labor, the lax of regulations and little environmental constraints in all developing countries in the Far East.

In February-April 2022, in the USA (Brownsville TX/by ISL-International Shipbreaking Ltd) was recycled the first EU ship (MT Wolverine/2006-built chemical tanker, IMO 9043081, capacity 16K tonnes, Norway-flagged).

Global shipbreaking industry statistics

The largest shipbreaking yards in the world are located in several regions in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and China, and in the last decade, Turkey is gradually entering the industry. The statistics below show the percentages of scrapped vessels by country. Clearly, the Asian yards dominate the industry of ship breaking and scrapping, India, China, and Bangladesh being the world's undisputed leaders in this business:

• India - 48%
• China - 21%
• Bangladesh - 19%
• Pakistan - 10%
• Others - 2%

The industry of breaking ships employs over 100,000 workers worldwide, 41% of them are between 18-23 years old, 11% are children (under the age of 18), 46% of all workers are illiterate. Of all the world's 45,000+ ocean ships about 1,6% are scrapped every year. About 95% of the mass of a ship can be reused.

Ship recycling industry supplies more than 40% of the world's raw material needs - appr 1,6 million people are engaged in this business, generating 600+ million tons of recyclables every year with annual revenue of US$200+ billion.

Shipbreaking is a term symbolizing huge profits by cheap buying of ships for scrap metal, selling scrap and used ship machinery, equipment, and electronics, hard manual labor, some of the worst work conditions in the world with some of the highest rates of work accidents and mortality, numerous health, and environmental risks.

Container ship scrapping market changes

An official 2013 Lloyd's List report says containership scrapping rates exceeded all records in 2013 compared to previous years and trends. Still, cellular ship capacity removed due to ship demolition was surpassed 1 to 3 compared to newbuild ship deliveries.

In 2013, container ship (boxship) recycling reached a total capacity of 450000 TEUs (container capacity unit) well exceeding 2009's record of 381000 TEUs. The rapid ship scrapping acceleration was attributed to the tendency of removing Panamax-class cargo ships under a charter. The smaller vessels (capacity around 4000 TEUs) were operated with charter rates at highly depressed levels - below USD 10,000 per day. In comparison, the 2005's ship charter rates peak was almost USD 45000 per day.

Also, the average age of boxships for scrapping fell from 25-30 years down to under 20 years. This is the operational age of ships sold for scrap.

Shipbreaking products and pollution

Here are some of the commonly acknowledged answers to the question of why all major shipbreakers are operational in Third World countries:

Older ships contain many hazardous substances banned as dangerous in developed countries. Typical examples - asbestos (used on old ships as a heat insulator), PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and lethal POPs (persistent organic pollutants). Currently, the cost of removing asbestos and expensive insurance and health risks are the main reasons ship breaking to be economically not viable in most developed countries.

In developed countries removing the metal for scrap costs more than the value of the scrap metal itself. This is not the case in the developing world - no risk of personal injury lawsuits and health claims by workers, inadequate or no protective equipment at all. And many pollutants can cause serious health problems - from cancers and pulmonary problems (like asthma and asbestosis) to hormonal system disruption. Heavy metals are found in paints, coatings, electrical equipment.

Serious environmental issues like coastal soil and seawater contamination. Wastes of the scrapped ships (especially oil and oil substances) are drained and dumped directly into the sea, and the lax or no environmental laws enables large quantities of toxic materials to escape into the environment. Ship scrapping activities also generate oil pollution and include discharge of ammonia, metal rust, which damages the bird population and numerous marine organisms (especially plankton and fishes).

Shipbreaking - a lucrative and powerful business

Shipbreaking on the beach (prohibited in most countries) is operated in coast areas inhabited by thousands of poor families in countries with millions of uneducated people looking for any job, thus providing the cheapest manpower for the ship breaking the industry. Under such economic conditions, no major investments are required to start and operate a ship breaking firm. Ships for scrap are not properly cleaned before beaching.

The ship recycling industry supplies great quantities of iron materials in the country (including high-quality steel), which also means that yards owners have substantial control over the amount of steel and its local price.

Almost everything on ships is recycled, reused, resold. The ships scrapping means providing raw materials to steel mills, steel plate remanufacturing, second-hand furniture, electrical and electronic equipment, oil and lubricants.

The shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh, for example, generates huge amounts of Government revenues through taxes reaching almost US $130 million (import duty, yards, and other taxes). This is an industry that employs directly many thousands of the poorest uneducated people.

As opposed to the ship beaching, the dry-dock ship demolishing process is faster by 50%, safer for workers and environment-friendly - no oil spillage into the sea.

Ship breaking regulations

The ship breaking industry regulations and controlling bodies include 3 UN organizations with responsibilities for the breaking of ships, who also provide guidelines for shipbreaking:

• Basel Convention (1992) with its 2002 "Technical Guidelines for the Environmentally Sound Management of the Full and Partial Dismantling of Ships". Info and recommendations on procedures, processes, and practices, on disposal and identification of potential contaminants, design, and construction of ship breaking facilities.
• IMO-International Maritime Organization (2003) with its "Guidelines on Ship Recycling" concerning administrators of shipbuilding and vessel equipment, supplying countries, flag and recycling states, ship-owners, repair and recycling yards. About new ship and equipment designs (to minimize waste generation and the use of hazardous materials), producing Green Passports for ships, ship recycling preparations. According to this document, the responsibility for worker and environment protection in ship recycling yards must rest with the breaking yard itself, the country's regulatory authorities, ship owners and stakeholders.
• International Labour Organization (2003) with its "Safety and Health in Shipbreaking" (endorsed 2004) - a set of criteria for ship disposal and recycling concerning ship breaking authorities and shipbreakers (both employers and workers). The Guidelines contribute to workers protection from workplace dangers, elimination of work-related accidents (injuries, diseases, deaths) and improving the management of occupational safety-health issues in shipbreaking yards. The document is especially intended as guidance to countries where such regulations are limited or nonexistent. It also includes recommendations on the management of hazardous substances, workers protection, and training programs. As to the beach shipbreaking, it suggests the following steps in the ship's dismantling process - assessing hazardous materials on board, decontamination (including gas-freeing), safe demolition planning, recycling, safe waste management.

On March 15, 2018, based on European Union's regulations for Waste Shipments, District Court of Rotterdam Holland convicted for trafficking toxic ships and sentenced the Seatrade shipping company (headquartered in Antwerp Belgium). The company was heavily fined for illegally exporting marine vessels for breaking on the beaches of India and Bangladesh. In addition, two Seatrade CEOs were banned for 1 year from exercising the profession director, commissioner, advisor or employee of a shipping company.

• This was a precedent when a European shipping company is held criminally liable for selling scrap vessels to substandard breaking yards in Asia. According to the Prosecutor, the Asian break yards' "current ship dismantling methods endanger the lives and health of workers and pollute the environment". His request Seatrade's CEOs to face prison time was only waived in light of this being a precedent for such criminal charges.
• The verdict set a Europe-wide precedent for holding ship owners accountable for knowingly selling for cash (via shady buyers) vessels for dirty and dangerous scrapping in order to maximize profits.
• In January 2019, the shipowner "Holland Maas Scheepvaart Beheer II BV" was fined EUR 0,78 million plus EUR 2,2 million (settlement/vessel's scrap-sale price) for beaching a boxship (HMS Laurence) for scrapping in Alang India.

On December 10, 2018, industry leaders and Sustainable Shipping Initiative (non-profit) announced the launch of SRTI (Ship Recycling Transparency Initiative). This is an online platform via which is shared information on global ship recycling via responsible practices. SRTI is a tool that allows companies to disclose information on ship recycling. The information is available to both industry stakeholders and the general public. SRTI connects major shipowners, investors, banks, insurers, cargo owners. Among the largest companies are Swire Shipping (China), Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk, NORDEN, Stolt Tankers, Wallenius Wilhelmsen; GES Bank, Nykredit, Standard Chartered; Lloyd’s Register; Forum for the Future (non-profit).

As of December 2018, the EU's European Commission has listed in its "European List of ship recycling facilities" a total of 26 shipyards. Of those, 23 are in Europe and 3 are in non-EU states - two in Turkey (LEYAL, LEYAL-DEMTAS) and one in the USA. Since January 2019, the EU Ship Recycling Regulation requires all vessels flagged in an EU Member State to be recycled at an approved facility from this list.

LEYAL Gemi Sokum is Turkey's largest ship dismantling and recycling company, in this business since 1980. Other such major drydock dismantling facilities in Europe are located in Belgium (NV Galloo Recycling Ghent), Denmark (Fornaes, Smedegaarden), France (Gardet Bezenac Recycling, Grand Port Maritime de Bordeaux, Les Recycleurs Bretons), Latvia (Tosmares Kugubuvetava), Lithuania (UAB APK, UAB Armar, UAB Vakaru Refonda), Holland (Keppel-Verolme, Scheepsrecycling Nederland), Poland (ALMEX), Portugal (Navalria-Docas, Construçoes e Reparacoes Navais, DDR VESSELS XXI), UK (Able UK Ltd, Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries Ltd, Swansea Drydock Ltd).

List of shipbreaking companies in USA, Canada, Europe, Turkey, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh

"Ship Breakers" is a term related to a company that serves the market of ship dismantling (ship demolition). The business of a ship breaking company generally includes scrapping and recycling ships, selling used ships equipment, and sometimes - the purchase and sale of second-hand ships and other marine vessels. The biggest ship breaking companies operate their businesses in impoverished Third World countries - few environmental or safety restrictions, the cheapest labor cost, huge profit margins.

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Shipbreaking business - YouTube video "Shipbreakers" (2004)

Pakistan's Gadani Shipbreaking Yard is located ~65 km southwest of Karachi - the country's most populous city, principal seaport, and financial center. Gadani is the world's 3rd largest shipbreaking yard after Alang (India) and Chittagong (Bangladesh).

• men die, some break legs, some tear a muscle, but work there never stops
• on their ship-dismantling jobs here workers make GBP 2,25 (USD 3,5) a day
• most of the workers at Gadani are Pashtuns (a very poor local tribe).

Next YouTube video is the "Shipbreakers" documentary (2004) - a great Canadian film about India's Alang Ship Breaking Yard - notorious with its deplorable working conditions, and at the same time, the world's largest ships scrapping yard ever operated ("world's biggest graveyard for ships"). Over half of the marine vessels in the world are scrapped in India (at the Mumbai and Alang yards). The video explains a lot about the ship scrapping business in general. It is made professionally and is well worth watching.

Ship cemeteries are where the beauty of all once-beloved ships shines for the very last time. From most rusty freighters to 5-star cruise liners and famous passenger ships - literally dumped on the beach of some of the poorest countries in the world to be stripped of all honors and destroyed by the wretched of the earth.

Thousands of the world's biggest ships have been driven onto the remote beaches of Alang, Chittagong, Gadani, Aliaga - to be seen no more.

Old Cruise Ships List

See here the original and new names of 40+years old cruise vessels (launched before 1990) that are still operational. The list doesn't include riverboats, Russian ships and cruiseferries.

Old ships' names have become a matter of investigation these days. With the exception of the newest passenger ships, almost all the rest are different from their launch names, usually changed the instant the vessel receives new owner or even new operator. Holland America Line ships are well-known for having "recycled" names - a unique practice of using one name for different vessels over the years, though a charming sentimental way of connecting past and future for this over 130-year old passenger shipping company.

• HSC (high-speed craft)
• MF (motor ferry)
• MS / MV (motor ship / vessel)
• MSY (motor sailing yacht)
• MY (motor yacht)
• NS (nuclear ship)
• RMS (royal mail ship)
• RV (research vessel)
• SB (sailing barge)
• SS (steamship)
• SV (sailing vessel)
• SY (sailing yacht)

The next video shows transatlantic ocean liners operated by Compagnie Generale Transatlantique (CGT, aka French Line) - founded 1861, defunct 1975.