Call for ship scrapping support in China

China – ‘China should accelerate phasing out old vessels to promote the restructuring of the shipping industry,’ the Chairman of Hebei Ocean Shipping Corporation (Hosco), Gao Yanming, has urged in a letter to the country’s Ministry of Transport.

According to SinoShipNews, the Hosco Chairman called for more policy support to increase the number of old ships being scrapped; he also underlined that the level of Port State Control (PSC) is in need of improvement. Mr Gao said the first could be achieved by income tax exemption on scrapping vessels for a certain period. Lowering the mandatory scrapping age of vessels would also help encourage the scrapping of old vessels, he argued.

At present, China operates a system of mandatory scrapping ages for tankers, bulkers and boxships of, respectively, 31, 33 and 34 years. According to Mr Gao, these place China towards the top end in terms of ship ages allowed across the world. Therefore, he added, China would do well to lower the scrapping age for bulkers and boxships to 27 years, and for tankers to 25 years.

Mr Gao also argued that China would benefit from implementing stricter regulations on foreign vessels that are over 20 years old.

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