… Search

Ship breaking
Article Talk

… … …
"Ship breaker" redirects here. For the
novel by Paolo Bacigalupi, see Ship
Breaker.

Ship-breaking (also known as ship

recycling, ship demolition, ship
dismantling, or ship cracking) is a
type of ship disposal involving the
breaking up of ships for either a source
of parts, which can be sold for re-use,
or for the extraction of raw materials,
chiefly scrap. Modern ships have a
lifespan of 25 to 30 years before
corrosion, metal fatigue and a lack of
parts render them uneconomical to
operate.[1] Ship-breaking allows the
materials from the ship, especially
steel, to be recycled and made into new
products. This lowers the demand for
mined iron ore and reduces energy use
in the steelmaking process. Fixtures
and other equipment on board the
vessels can also be reused. While ship-
breaking is sustainable, there are
concerns about the use by poorer
countries without stringent
environmental legislation. It is also
labour-intensive, and considered one of
the world's most dangerous industries.
[2]

Removing steel plates from a ship

using cranes at Alang Ship
Breaking Yard (India)

In 2012, roughly 1,250 ocean ships

were broken down, and their average
age was 26 years.[3][4] In 2013, the
world total of demolished ships
amounted to 29,052,000 tonnes, 92%
of which were demolished in Asia. As of
January 2020, Alang Ship Breaking
Yard (India) has the largest global share
at 30%;[5] followed by Chittagong Ship
Breaking Yard (Bangladesh) and Gadani
ship-breaking yard (Pakistan).[6]

The largest sources of ships are China,

Greece, and Germany respectively,
although there is a greater variation in
the source of carriers versus their
disposal.[7] The ship-breaking yards of
India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan
employ 225,000 workers as well as
providing many indirect jobs. In
Bangladesh, the recycled steel covers
20% of the country's needs and in India
it is almost 10%.[8]

As an alternative to ship-breaking,
ships may be sunk to create artificial
reefs after legally-mandated removal of
hazardous materials (though this does
not recycle any materials), or sunk in
deep ocean waters. Storage is a viable
temporary option, whether on land or
afloat, though most ships will be
eventually scrapped, some will be sunk,
or preserved as museums.

History

Technique …

The decommissioning process is

entirely different in developed countries
than it is in third world countries. In
both cases, ship-breakers bid for the
ship, and the highest bidder wins the
contract.[23] The ship-breaker then
acquires the vessel from the
international broker who deals in
outdated ships.[24] The price paid is
around $400 per tonne and the poorer
the environmental legislation the higher
the price.[25][26] The purchase of
water-craft makes up 69% of the
income earned by the industry in
Bangladesh, versus 2% for labour
costs.[12] The ship is taken to the
decommissioning location either under
its own power or with the use of tugs.
[13]

Developing countries …

Steel plate cutting using gas

cutter at Alang Ship Breaking Yard
(India)

In developing countries, chiefly the

Indian subcontinent, ships are run
ashore on gently sloping sand tidal
beaches at high tide so that they can
be accessed for disassembly. In the
beaching method, no external source of
energy is used to pull the ship, as
opposed to the dry dock method of
ship recycling where a ship is brought
inside dry dock by consuming huge
energy.[27] However, maneuvering a
large ship onto a beach at high speed
takes skill and daring even for a
specialist captain, and is not always
successful.[28] Next, the anchor is
dropped to steady the ship and the
engine is shut down.[29] It takes 50
labourers about three months to break
down a normal-sized cargo vessel of
about 40,000 tonnes.[24]

Before the decommissioning begins,

various clearances and permissions are
obtained from regulatory, pollution, and
customs authorities after a thorough
inspection is conducted by them. The
ship recycling process then begins with
the draining of fuel, hydraulic fluid,
coolant, lubricating oils and firefighting
liquid. Any kind of waste such as
plastic, garbage, or oily sand is sent to
waste treatment facilities, like the
Common Hazardous Waste Treatment
Storage Disposal Facility (CHW-TSDF)
set up by the Gujarat Maritime Board in
Alang. Any usable oil is sent to
government authorized refineries
where used oil is chemically treated.
The next steps entail recovering
unused and partially spent materials,
disposal of bilge water, recovering and
obtaining reusable materials, and safe
disposal of bio-hazardous materials like
asbestos and glass wool. Each of these
materials are inspected and sent to
regulated waste treatment facilities or
to buyers for further use and
processing.[30]

In recycling yards in the Indian

subcontinent, specifically in Alang,
upgraded facilities such as 100%
impervious floors with drainage
systems, heavy lift cranes, yard and
vessel-specific training for workers,
and the development and
implementation of Ship Recycling
Facility Plans and Ship Recycling Plans
(as per IMO’s guidelines in Resolutions
MEPC.210(63) and MEPC.196(62))
have been implemented.[31]

Developed countries …
This section may require cleanup to
Learn more
meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
The specific problem is: uses
In developed countries the dismantling
process should mirror the technical
guidelines for the environmentally
sound management of the full and
partial dismantling of ships, published
by the Basel Convention in 2003.[4]
Recycling rates of 98% can be
achieved in these facilities.[32]

Prior to dismantling, an inventory of

dangerous substances should be
compiled. All hazardous materials and
liquids, such as bilge water, are
removed before disassembly. Holes
should be bored for ventilation and all
flammable vapours are extracted.

Vessels are initially taken to a dry dock

or a pier, although a dry dock is
considered more environmentally
friendly because all spillage is
contained and can easily be cleaned
up. Floating is, however, cheaper than a
dry dock.[33] Storm water discharge
facilities will stop an overflow of toxic
liquid into the waterways. The carrier is
then secured to ensure its stability.[4]
[33] Often the propeller is removed
beforehand to allow the water-craft to
be moved into shallower water.[33]

Workers must completely strip the ship

down to a bare hull, with objects cut
free using saws, grinders, abrasive
cutting wheels, hand held shears,
plasma and gas torches.[33] Anything
of value, such as spare parts and
electronic equipment is sold for re-use,
although labour costs mean that low
value items are not economical to sell.
The Basel Convention demands that all
yards separate hazardous and non-
hazardous waste and have appropriate
storage units, and this must be done
before the hull is cut up. Asbestos,
found in the engine room, is isolated
and stored in custom-made plastic
wrapping prior to being placed in
secure steel containers, which are then
landfilled.[32]

Many hazardous wastes can be

recycled into new products. Examples
include lead-acid batteries or electronic
circuit boards. Another commonly used
treatment is cement-based
solidification and stabilization. Cement
kilns are used because they can treat a
range of hazardous wastes by
improving physical characteristics and
decreasing the toxicity and
transmission of contaminants. A
hazardous waste may also be
"destroyed" by incinerating it at a high
temperature; flammable wastes can
sometimes be burned as energy
sources. Some hazardous waste types
may be eliminated using pyrolysis in a
high temperature electrical arc, in inert
conditions to avoid combustion. This
treatment method may be preferable to
high temperature incineration in some
circumstances such as in the
destruction of concentrated organic
waste types, including PCBs, pesticides
and other persistent organic pollutants.
Dangerous chemicals can also be
permanently stored in landfills as long
as leaching is prevented.[34][35]

Valuable metals, such as copper or

aluminum in electric cable, that are
mixed with other materials may be
recovered by the use of shredders and
separators in the same fashion as e-
waste recycling. The shredders cut the
electronics into metallic and non-
metallic pieces. Metals are extracted
using magnetic separators, air flotation
separator columns, shaker tables or
eddy currents. The plastic almost
always contains regulated hazardous
waste (e.g., asbestos, PCBs,
hydrocarbons) and cannot be melted
down.[33]

Large objects, such as engine parts,

are extracted and sold as they become
accessible.[33] The hull is cut into 300
tonne sections, starting with the upper
deck and working slowly downwards.
While oxy-acetylene gas-torches are
most commonly used, detonation
charges can quickly remove large
sections of the hull. These sections are
transported to an electric arc furnace
to be melted down into new ferrous
products, though toxic paint must be
stripped prior to heating.[18]

Historical techniques …

At Kaohsiung in the late 1960s and 70s,

ships to be scrapped were tied up at
berths in Dah Jen and Dah Lin Pu, at
the southern end of Kaohsiung Harbor.
[36] There were a total of 24 breaking
berths at Kaohsiung; each berth was
rented by the scrapper from the Port
Authority at a nominal rate of NT$7 per
square foot per month, and up to
18,000 square feet (1,700 m2) could be
rented surrounding a 300-foot (91 m)
long berth at a time. A typical 5,000-
ton ship could be broken up in 25 to 30
days.[11]

The process began with "cleaning", a

process in which subcontractors would
come on board the ship to strip it of
loose and flammable items, which were
often resold in second-hand shops.
After that, the cutting crews would start
to dismantle the hull, stern-first; large
sections were cut off the ship and
moved via cranes and rigging taken
from previously-scrapped ships.
Because the scrapping at Kaohsiung
was done at the docks, scrap metal
was placed on trucks waiting to
transport it to Kaohsiung's mills.[36]

Conventions and
Regulations

Risks

List of ship-breaking
yards

List of ship breaking

yards

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Last edited 12 days ago by 2…

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0

unless otherwise noted.

Terms of Use • Privacy policy •

Desktop