Bangladesh-based ship recycling company, PHP Ship Recycling, has achieved a significant milestone by purchasing a ship directly from a shipping company for the first time. The ship, called “KAMO,” was sold by NYK, and was beached at the company’s facility in Chattogram on March 9th. The sale is seen as a positive development for the industry, which has come under fire in recent years due to concerns over working conditions, lack of protection for workers, and pollution.
PHP Ship Recycling has been working hard to change this, following the Hong Kong Convention adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2009. The company was awarded a Statement of Compliance by ClassNK in 2020, making it the first green ship recycling company in Bangladesh. It also obtained an ISO certificate for Energy Management, becoming the first ship recycling company in the world to have such a certification.
According to PHP’s Managing Director, Mohammed Zahirul Islam, achieving these certifications required an investment of over $11 million and 12 years of intensive hard work. The ship recycling facility has 500,000 square feet of space at the edge of the Bay of Bengal, and has a capacity of 160,000 metric tons of Light Displacement Tonnage (LDT).
NYK sent its own inspection team to PHP and evaluated the facility to stricter standards than those set out in the Hong Kong Convention. PHP became the first yard to be certified by NYK in Bangladesh.
More than 80% of shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh have been closed down in the past three years due to industry pressure stemming from environmental concerns, low prices, and inherent financial challenges due to Bangladesh’s struggling economy. However, the certification obtained by PHP and other shipbreaking yards in the country could help to attract more business to the industry, especially as environmental standards become increasingly stringent.
Source: FleetMon
