The Ship Breaking and Recycling Industry in Bangladesh and Pakistan

This study seeks to strengthen the
knowledge base with respect to competitiveness and
profitability of the Ship Breaking and Recycling Industry
(SBRI) and to investigate the feasibility of ship breaking
countries in this region, specifically Bangladesh and
Pakistan, achieving compliance with the Hong Kong Convention
(HKC) without jeopardizing the future of the industry there.
The objective of the study is to inform key stakeholders
associated with policy making and ship breaking including
the government of Pakistan and the government of Bangladesh
about the current problems encountered in the SBRI and
suggest a road map to help strengthen institutional and
regulatory systems that can improve work practices in the
ship breaking and recycling industry. The study addresses
the following: i) it assessed the productivity,
competitiveness and growth potential of the industry in
Bangladesh and Pakistan (chapter two); ii) it undertook
environmental audits of hazardous waste materials present in
ships scheduled for dismantling and established a pollution
inventory as well as projections of hazardous materials till
2030 (chapter three); and iii) it provides a plan of action
to enable Bangladesh and Pakistan comply with the newly
signed HKC without jeopardizing the future of the SBRI in
these countries (chapter four). In this study, ship breaking
and recycling is defined as an industry that, through the
use of land, infrastructure, machinery, and labor and
through the consumption of utilities, converts ships that
have outlived their economic life into steel and other
recyclable items, which are then sold in local markets. The
study was cover a period of 11 months in 2009. It consisted
of an economic and market assessment of the SBRI in
Bangladesh and Pakistan; environmental audits of ships and
ship recycling facilities to establish a pollution inventory
and a gap analysis and needs assessment for compliance with
the HKC.