Brazil to Stop Beaching Ships in South Asia
By Aiswarya Lakshmi
Friday, August 25, 2017
Brazilian authorities plan to implement legislation to help prevent that vessels owned by exporters such as Petrobras and Vale wind up on South Asia's beaching yards, Bloomberg reported.
The report said that earlier this month, authorities decided to develop a legal framework to ensure former Brazilian ships don’t end up with recyclers notorious for using dirty and dangerous methods, federal environmental watchdog Ibama said by email.
Brazilian companies could face fines of as much as 10 million reais ($3.2 million) if Ibama finds they violate international standards by letting their vessels end up in substandard shipbreaking facilities in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Both Petroleo Brasileiro SA, as the state-controlled oil company is formally known, and Vale say they offload ships in good faith to reputable buyers.
The NGOs and trade unions have criticized the shipbreaking practices of Transpetro, a part of Brazil-based Petrobras, which sent more than twenty vessels to the beaches of India and Pakistan in the last five years.
NGO Shipbreaking Platform said that, according to maritime databases, at least six more units owned by Petrobras have already been sold for demolition but are still in Brazilian territorial waters.