BERLIN: German ship owner Ernst Komrowski topped the list of the worst global dumpers with 14 end-of-life vessels sold to the beaches. All of these were formerly part of the Maersk fleet and had been on a long-term charter with the Danish container ship giant, which oppositely to Komrowski has a strict ship recycling policy for its own vessels. Second ranks South Korea’s largest container ship owner Hanjin Shipping with 11 ships.
Being based in a leading ship building country and with a strong environmental profile, Hanjin should also be aware of issues related to safe and clean recycling, still, they chose profit over people and the environment. Third ranks repeat offender Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) – the second largest container ship operator in the world whose shipbreaking activities in India have already cost the life of six workers in 2009 when a fire broke out on the MSC Jessica. Despite recurrent public criticism of MSC’s deplorable management of their end-of-life fleet, MSC has not developed a ship recycling policy that can prevent such tragic accidents.
Hanjin and MSC’s bad practice stands in sharp contrast to that of their competitors Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, two leading containership companies that have committed themselves to the recycling of their end-of-life vessels in modern facilities off the beach. Number four amongst the worst dumpers is Petrobras with six end-of-life vessels sold to South Asia: the Brazilian oil giant is the largest company of the Southern Hemisphere, but in contrast to other major oil and gas companies unwilling to recycle its old tankers properly.
