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EU strips Turkish ship recycling yards of ‘approved’ status

Two yards in Turkey have lost their status as EU-approved ship recycling facilities. They have failed to meet the standards required under the EU’s ship recycling regulations.

Concerns regarding worker safety, the use of flags of convenience and a lack of transparency in dismantling operations have led the European Commission to remove the Işıksan and Simsekler facilities in Turkey from its official list. The latter reported fatal accidents in the past two years..

Meanwhile, the commission has granted ‘approved’ status to a yard  in Bulgaria operated by Ship and Industrial Service. It has also extended the expiry date of two listed yards in France and Lithuania, UAB Armar and Démonaval Recycling respectively.

The European List now contains 45 ship recycling facilities, of which 38 are in Europe (EU, Norway and UK), six  in Turkey and one  in the USA. ‘Overall, the recycling capacity of the yards on the EU List is still multiple times higher than the demand and several yards on the European List are also capable of recycling large vessels,’ the commission states.

European ship owners currently own around 40% of the world fleet although some 80% of these ships are being dismantled outside the EU, mainly in South Asia. This has sparked criticism from industry watchdog NGO Shipbreaking Platform.

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