45 yards included in the renewed EU list of ship recycling facilities

The European Commission adopted the 12^th edition of the European List of ship recycling facilities featuring 45 yards.

The updated list renews the inclusion of two yards located in Türkiye and one yard located in the USA, after 5 years on the list.

These include Leyal Gemi Söküm Sanayi ve Ticaret Ltd. and Leyal-Demtaş Gemi Söküm Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş.yards in Turkey, and the U.S.-based International Shipbreaking Limited L.L.C.

The Commission has also extended the date of expiry of the inclusion of one listed yard located in Finland and five listed yards located in Norway. The new list furthermore removes three facilities located respectively in Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway because they are no longer in the ship recycling business.

The said yards are Stena Recycling A/S in Denmark, Scheepssloperij Nederland B.V. in the Netherlands, and Lutelandet Offshore AS in Norway.

The European List now contains 45 ship-recycling facilities, including 35 yards in Europe (EU, Norway and UK), 9 yards in Türkiye, and one yard in the USA. Several yards on the European List are capable of recycling large vessels.

European ship owners possess around 30% of the world fleet in tonnage. Many of these ships are being dismantled outside the EU, mainly in South Asia, under conditions that are often harmful to workers’ health and the environment.

Since 31 December 2018, the EU Ship Recycling Regulation has been requiring all large sea-going vessels sailing under an EU Member State flag to use an approved ship recycling facility included in the European List of ship recycling facilities.

To be included in the European List, any ship recycling facility, irrespective of its location, has to comply with a number of safety and environmental requirements. For facilities located in the EU, competent national authorities must check that all the relevant conditions are met, and then inform the Commission that the facility should be listed. Ship recycling facilities located in third countries and intending to recycle ships flying a flag of a Member State have to apply to the Commission for inclusion in the European List.

The Commission then evaluates and checks how these yards comply with the requirements in the Regulation and proposes their inclusion in the European List when these requirements are met.

As part of the implementation of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation, the Commission works on the monitoring of compliance of the yards on the European List with the conditions set out in EU legislation. In that context, the Commission carried out for the first time in October unannounced inspections in Turkish yards.

The Commission is evaluating the Ship Recycling Regulation, and the results are expected to be published in the second quarter of 2024.