The scrapping of ships among the ten largest container shipping companies in the world has picked up, NGO Shipbreaking Platform’s annual report reveals.

In total, the group of large global shipping companies operating on the main routes between Asia, Europe and North America scrapped 31 ships in 2023, compared to 3 in 2022.

However, when all carriers are taken into account, the total number of ships is essentially unchanged, as only three more ships were sent for scrapping in 2023 compared to the previous year.

WPO has compared the figures for the last two years for the shipping companies MSC, Maersk, CMA CGM, Cosco, Hapag-Lloyd, ONE, Evergreen, HMM, Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation and Zim.

It is mainly due to the shipping company MSC that the number of ships scrapped by the ten biggest companies has multiplied.

The Swiss-based company has scrapped 14 ships in 2023, almost half of the total volume scrapped by the big companies.

All ships have been sent to shipbreaking yards in Alang, India, which has been heavily criticised by NGO Shipbreaking Platform.

The shipyards in India carry a heavy historical burden, as workplace accidents and fatalities have regularly occurred during the hard labor.

Ships scrapped by the 10 largest shipping companies in 2023

”It is beyond shameful for a company that makes billions of yearly profit to knowingly persist exploiting workers while turning a blind eye to the environmental degradation caused by beaching,” says Nicola Mulinaris, Senior Communication and Policy Advisor of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, adding:

“Ironically, MSC recently committed to prevent known illegal exporters of waste use their ships to facilitate illegal waste trade. We call on MSC to make the same commitment with regards to their own toxic waste.”

WPO has reached out to MSC for a comment on the many scrappings and to address the criticism. They have not been available for an interview, but write in an email response to WPO:

”Alang is a perfectly legitimate and responsible supplier for these services and operates in line with the high standards we set for them. We conduct our recycling in line with all applicable local and international regulations.”

Global fleet to grow

The scrapping of the large shipping companies’ ships comes at a time when a large wave of new container ships is expected to hit the market in the coming years.

The shipping organization Bimco estimates that the capacity of the container fleet is set to grow by 18% in the coming years despite the scrapping.

In the past two years, shipowners have also preferred to keep their vessels due to the high demand for containerized cargo associated with the pandemic.

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Shipbreaking Platform also recently criticized both the EU’s inspections of shipyards in Turkey and the legislation on shipbreaking.

However, over the next ten years, Bimco also expects the number of scrappings to more than double that of the past decade, predicting that more than 15,000 ships totaling more than 600 million tons will be sent for scrapping by 2032.

This is partly due to the fact that a large part of the container fleet is twenty years old or older and that the increasing competition from more modern and energy-efficient ships may convince more ship owners to scrap their ships.

This is especially true if overcapacity lowers charter rates to unsustainable levels for the least energy-efficient ships.

However, freight rates are currently being held up by the attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea, causing many shipping companies to avoid the Suez Canal and instead sail south of Africa.

This helps to keep overcapacity down, even though many new ships are being delivered.

More ships sent to Asia

While the number of ships scrapped overall in 2023 hasn’t increased significantly, there have been noticeable changes in where ships are sent to end their journey.

In 2022, a total of 292 ended up in the disputed beaching yards in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where ships are sailed up onto the beach at high speed and then cut up.

This year, 325 ships have been sent to the beaching yards in Asian countries, which means that 85% of the world’s ships sent for scrapping end up here.

According to Shipbreaking Platform, most of the scrapped ships originally belonged to shipping companies in East Asia and Europe.

The new report also highlights the working conditions in a large number of shipyards, especially in Asia.

According to the NGO, at least six workers lost their lives in 2023 while dismantling ships on the beach in Chattogram, Bangladesh, and another 19 were seriously injured.

In 2022, at least 10 shipyard workers died and 33 were injured on the same beach.

(Translated using DeepL with additional editing by Catherine Brett)