Posted on: 25 October 2023
Norton Rose Fulbright and Maritime London joined forces to run an event focusing on ship recycling as part of LISW23 on 14 September, which was held at the Terrace Suite in the Norton Rose Fulbright LLP overlooking the Thames.
With the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships entering into force in two years’ time, the panel consisting of Norton Rose Fulbright Partners Philip Roche (London) and Michael Jurgen Werner (Brussels), Jennifer Riley-James, Lead Regulatory Specialist, Regulatory Affairs of Lloyd’s Register and Dr Anil Sharma of GMS, discussed if this would bring a change for the industry and make recycling of ships easier, and what, if anything, it would change in practical terms.
With the influx of newbuild box ships soon to enter the market and IMO decarbonisation regulations making older ships difficult to trade, BIMCO estimates 15,000 ships will need recycling in the next ten years. Against an uncertain macroeconomic backdrop, the demand for sustainable recycling of vessels, and a complex and fragmented regulatory framework, make compliance and the physical scrapping of deep-sea tonnage challenging.
The conversation also explored how the sector was responding to the current market conditions, what shipowners should be considering when thinking of the life cycle of the asset, the role that ship recycling played in the industry’s wider ESG obligations and what other market participants needed to consider.
Event’s photos https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjAT7Bu
