An Evergreen Marine Corp boxship sold earlier this year for 'green scrapping' in India is now on the beach at Chattogram, Bangladesh.
The 5,364-teu Ever Unison (built 1996) is therefore the latest in a series of ships sold for scrap under terms that were allegedly flouted by demolition cash buyers.
A Chattogram port bulletin lists the cash buyer of the Ever Unison, which has been renamed One Bridge, as Singapore-based Somap International, a well-known player in the demolition business.
Evergreen is one of the companies that incurred adverse publicity last year over non-green scrapping.
Oil fund
In January 2018, Norway's oil fund, whose official name is the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), said it would not invest in Evergreen Marine Corp, Korea Line Corp, Precious Shipping and Thoresen Thai Agencies because of their demolition policies.
Some of the parties affected criticised the move as uninformed, but demolition industry sources have said that it led Evergreen to adopt strict requirements for scrapping.
The Ever Unison was one of four Evergreen demolition candidates reported sold in early August, and one of 12 this year. Scrapping industry sources told TradeWinds this week that all ships Evergreen has recently sold for demolition were sold under memorandums of understanding (MOAs) that called for green scrapping in India.
The deals included a provision requiring yards that comply with the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships.
A sistership, the 5,364-teu Ever Union (built 1997), was scrapped at Bangladesh's Kabir Steel facility where it was the scene of a fatal casualty in July. A commercial source said he believes this ship was sold for demolition before Evergreen changed its policy.
"[The Ever Union fatality] may have influenced their change to HKC," said the source, referring to the Hong Kong Convention.
Published AIS information indicates that the former Ever Unison went dark on about 15 November after staying at anchor off Colombo for two weeks.
Name change
A Chattogram port bulletin issued this week said the ship arrived on 21 November under the name One Bridge and was beached on 29 November. At 24,039 ldt and a price given by the port as $397 per ldt, the ship was worth $9.5m on its final voyage, which is as much as $600,000 more than it would have brought in if the Hong Kong Convention sales terms were observed.
Industry sources said they know of no other ships in Evergreen's scrapping programme that wound up on the wrong beach this year.
But they said the price in India would be around $20 to $25 per ldt less, so for shipowners with a substantial list of ships to dispose of, a green sales policy represents deliberately forgoing millions in potential proceeds.
Meanwhile, cash buyers that do not observe such a guarantee in the MOA do not necessarily risk serious financial liability.
"Evergreen widely circulates notices of sale to probably 10 to 15 brokers saying that their ship must be sold for HKC scrapping in India," said a market source who regularly sees such notices. "But their contracts are not very tight. There is no penalty clause."
TCC case
In October, Hong Kong-based shipowner Tai Chong Cheang (TCC) made news with an English High Court lawsuit after rising rates earlier this year enticed an affiliate of cash buyer GMS to trade a vessel TCC had sold for scrap.
The judge declined to assess more than nominal damages for the two charters the 173,000-dwt Lory (ex-CSK Glory, built 2002) had already performed. But he refused to rule that it would treat the next voyage in the same way.
An Evergreen representative said the company was not in a position to comment on the Ever Unison.
But said: "However, Evergreen would like to confirm that all its vessel recycling is carried out in accordance with its stated policy."
On its website, Evergreen states that its policy "requires the buyer to choose a 'Green-Ship Recycling' shipyard, certified by the Hong Kong Convention", though it says it adopted the policy "before 31 December 2020".
Somap principal Dinesh Pandey was travelling and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story has been amended since publication to reflect that Somap International was the cash buyer of the One Bridge. A previous version of this story inadvertently omitted the name of the company.
