8/6/2020 GMS hits out over BBC documentary on ship recycling industry

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Leela Ship Recycling yard

GMS, the world’s largest cash buyer of ships destined for recycling, haslambasted a BBC team of investigative journalists reports containing‘misinformation and incorrect views of the ship recycling industry’ inAlang, India.

BBC Disclosure had run a documentary called “Breaking Bad: Uncovering the OilIndustry’s Dirty Secret” on March 16. GMS highlighted one-sided interviews,biased reporting and ‘an onslaught of misinformation’.

GMS hits out over BBC documentary on ship recycling industry

Paul Bartlett | Apr 05, 2020

8/6/2020 GMS hits out over BBC documentary on ship recycling industry

https://www.seatrade-maritime.com/print/71233 2/3

Ironically, the BBC team picked on the world’s largest ship recycling region wheremany facilities have been involved recently in pioneering efforts to raisestandards, improve health and safety, training, environmental performance andlabour conditions. These initiatives are partly the result of an industry-wide driveto improve conditions in the ship recycling business which, to be fair, have had apoor track record for many year.

Related: Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling a step closer as India signs up

Ship recycling is, nevertheless, an essential supplier of steel and a vital source ofemployment in various locations including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh andTurkey although COVID-19 has shut down this vital link in shipping’s supplychain for the moment.

Meanwhile, regulators have focused on the initiatives to raise standards includingthe IMO’s Hong Kong Convention which, though still not ratified, has led toimproved working conditions in many recycling yards. Many shipowners mustalready comply with requirements laid down in the EU Ship RecyclingRegulation; others will have to do so in future.

Related: A decade on - IMO Hong Kong Convention on ship recycling is a long way from ratification

In its statement at the end of last week, GMS pointed out that nearly 80 of the 120recycling facilities in Alang have already been awarded Hong Kong ConventionStatement of Compliance certification from classification society members of theInternational Association of Classification Societies including ClassNK, IndianRegister of Shipping, Lloyd’s Register and RINA. Surprisingly, none of the classsocieties were interviewed by the BBC team.

GMS itself had provided written responses to the BBC team’s questions, it said,“most of which do not seem to have been taken into account”.

The cash buyer also noted that the journalists had chosen to interview Ms IngvildJenssen, founder and director of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a long-timecritic of the recycling sector despite the improvements that have been made. “Thearticle fails to include a single interview from any individual or organisation who

8/6/2020 GMS hits out over BBC documentary on ship recycling industry

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would present a counterpoint to dispute the negative claims made in the report,”GMS said.

The team also picked a human rights lawyer, GMS said, who appeared not tounderstand ‘the correct inner workings and structures of the industry”.

They said it seemed that the BBC team had also failed to understand GMS’ role inthe recycling of three Diamond Offshore oil rigs, previously stacked in theCromarty Firth, Scotland. As agents in the ship recycling supply chain, GMS werenot owners of the rigs at any time, a fact the BBC team failed to understand.

No comment has been available yet from the BBC.