BIMCO has launched a Ship Recycling Alliance to help accelerate safe and environmentally sound recycling of ships. The alliance will co-ordinate the voices of the ship recycling industry and the shipping industry and help facilitate the global implementation of the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC).
Washington State Ferries announced it has canceled the sale of two retired vessels after the buyer failed to meet its contractual obligations and left a tugboat crew abandoned in Puget Sound.Sold in August for $100,000 apiece, the decommissioned WSF ferries Elwha and Klahowya had been sold to Nelson Armas, who has gained approval from the U.S.
The maritime industry is seeing significant fleet growth in the containership sector as the volume of newbuild deliveries eclipses previous highs.“Since the beginning of the year, the capacity of the containership fleet has increased by 1.6 million TEU. Compared to one year ago, the capacity has risen 11% to 29.
Approximately one month has passed since the Singaporean-flagged container vessel M/V Dali allided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26. The bridge, which connects Hawkins Point and Dundalk, Maryland, collapsed into the lower Patapsco River, bringing all maritime traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore to a standstill.
Babcock has awarded the recycling contract to KDC Veolia Decommissioning Services UK (KDCV) as part of U.K.’s demonstrator project to fully dismantle a nuclear-powered submarine Swiftsure.Babcock is working with the Defence Nuclear Enterprise (DNE) and KDCV on the demonstrator dismantling project
Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK) and Oono Development Co., Ltd. agreed to jointly study the commercialization of ship recycling, in which ships and large offshore structures are dismantled in Japan and recycled as steel scrap and other materials. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on September 18 at NYK's head office.
“Between January and August 2024, the number of recycled ships has dropped 42% y/y, the second lowest level in 16 years. The market has seen high freight rates and strong demand, delaying the recycling of older ships. On the supply side, the fleet has continued to grow slowly, limiting fleet renewal,” says Filipe Gouveia, Shipping Analyst at BIMCO.
“During the first seven months of this year, 194 product tankers larger than 10k deadweight tonnes (DWT) have been contracted with a combined capacity of 13.3m DWT. This is a 17% increase compared to last year and the highest level of contracting since 2006,” says Niels Rasmussen, Chief Shipping Analyst at BIMCO.
As Russia's war continues to rage in Ukraine and tensions hit a fever pitch in the Middle East, zooming out of the ship recycling markets, GMS sees geopolitical events taking centerstage across all shipping sectors (trading and recycling) for yet another week, with no end in sight.
One of the largest vessels in Australian history, HMAS Sirius, has been recycled.After 15 years’ service as a Royal Australian Navy fuel tanker – and two years since her decommissioning at HMAS Stirling, Perth, in December 2021 – the ship has now become scrap metal.Sirius is the largest vessel to be dismantled in Australia
Damen Shipyards Group has launched a pilot project in which a small tug will be dismantled in a circular way and fully in line with the EU regulations.The project will serve as a trial, after which this approach of ‘green’ ship dismantling and recycling will be made available commercially, and also for larger vessels, according to Damen.The 15.
“In 2023, only seven product tankers with combined deadweight tonnes (DWT) capacity of 265,000 were recycled. This was a year-on-year drop of 82% compared to 1.5 million DWT (27 product tankers) recycled in 2022. It was also the lowest level of recycling seen since records began in 1996,” says Niels Rasmussen, Chief Shipping Analyst at BIMCO.