Even today, the main bulk of shipment from one country to another is being done by merchant ships from all over the world. And like everything, a time comes when these ships need to be retired from use. Have you ever wondered who does this especially important job? It is because if you just leave a ship that is to be scrapped in a sea, it will not only be dangerous to the environment but will also affect the shipping routes. This is why there are dedicated ship scrap yards in many countries where ship recycling companies help merchant fleets by breaking these redundant ships into scrap metals.
In this regard, South Asian countries lead the present green ship recycling industry. At first, this industry was haphazard and unregulated; there was the loss to human life as well as the improper dismantling of obsolete ships that were not beneficial to the environment. But thanks to stricter governmental control and push by green NGOs, these ship breaking companies worked with the international engineering community to create a process that is efficient, eco-friendly and conserves energy.
So, how does this ship braking system work? To start with, first, a ship has to be decommissioned before owners start looking for ship recycling companies in various countries. Currently, there is no uniform rule regarding which conditions are to be applied while decommissioning a ship. It is generally the owner of the ship who decided whether the ship is viable for working any more or not. This is why you will often find news regarding poorly maintained ships suddenly breaking down while on the sea. If the owner thinks that the vessel scrap price is better than running the ship, he will decommission the ship.
But reaching those ultimate shipowners who will break down the ship is not easy; it goes through many hands before reaching the final destination. The steps start with the publication of news of ship that is to be dismantled on various online platforms and websites dedicated to this field. The interested ship recycling brokers then approach the ship owners and negotiate a price to pay in advance to transfer the ownership to their name. The broker then invites quotation from various buyers all over the world and a memorandum of understanding is signed between the broker and the buyer who quoted the best price. The buyer will then send a surveyor to investigate the ship to see the actual condition and whether it is good or not. The buyer will then provide relevant documents to transfer the vessel.
After that, the buyers who are often ship recycling companies in India will follow one of these three processes to dismantle the ship:
- Beach method: In this method, the ship is kept in a shallow basin that has long shelf beds and has favourable tidal conditions. The high tides push the biggest vessels inside and the dismantling is done at the beach area on the waterfront of the recycling shipyard. Such shipyards are present in Gujrat, India, Chittagong in Bangladesh and Gadani in Karachi, Pakistan.
- Berth Method or dry dock method: The shipyards that do this kind of ship recycling have a dedicated dry dock in the shipyard. A concrete barrier separates the dismantled ship and the seawater. Such dismantling is done in the USA and Western Europe mainly.
- Buoy method: This kind of ship dismantling method is mainly followed in Chinese ship recycling yards. The ship is cut in the vertical direction, starting from the top of the navigation deck and slowly going towards the double bottom.
No matter which of these three methods is employed by the ultimate buyer, the cutting process continues until all the parts of the vessel are cut through. Sometimes heavy lifting cranes are used, but most scrap ship buyers in Bangladesh will use manual labour to do the job. This is a high labour incentive industry and a good employment area in the countries that offer these facilities.
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