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4 November, 2015The world’s largest shipbreaking site, Alang in Western India, has received a high profile private certification of compliance with the safety and sustainability standards in the Hong Kong Convention.
ClassNK, a large ship classification company based in Japan, awarded the Alang ship recycling sites with a Statement of Compliance (SoC) with the Hong Kong Convention.
Kan Matsuzaki, IndustriALL Director for the Shipbuilding and Shipbreaking industries says:
This is a concrete step towards protecting workers’ lives in the ship breaking yards.
IndustriALL welcomes all international efforts that improve shipbreaking and invites all stakeholders to think together, act together and together improve occupational health and safety. We are determined to make the jobs in this industry safe and sustainable, which is why we campaign for the ratification and implementation of the Hong Kong Convention.
Best practices should be shared by stakeholders, including from yards certified by ClassNK, to improve occupational health and safety at all yards globally.
The move has also been welcomed by the Asian Ship-owners’ Forum (ASF). The ASF is made up of eight national ship-owner associations, from Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei and the Federation of ASEAN Ship-owner Associations. Those ASF members are estimated to control about 50 per cent of the world's merchant fleet.
Dr Frank Lu, Chairman of the Ship Recycling Committee of the ASF, said, “I sincerely desire that ship recyclers all around the world demonstrate capable development and maintenance of safe and environmentally friendly recycling operations in compliance with the spirit and requirements of the Hong Kong Convention. Such action would give examples that can be followed by developing ship recyclers for their further improvement. The ASF members will, in the meantime, continue to urge their governments to ratify the Hong Kong Convention at the earliest opportunity.”