Lobby group NGO Shipbreaking Platform has failed in its bid to to halt the proposed sale of the 32-year-old container ro-ro (conro) Atlantic Cartier (built 1985) for demolition in India.

The Brussels-based group filed a complaint to the Basel Focal Point — a reporting centre for whistle-blowers — alerting authorities that as a Swedish-flag ship trading mainly in European waters the vessel should be scrapped under the Basel Convention or European Union (EU) Waste Regulation.

Because its last port of call before heading for scrap was Hamburg, international export waste regulations should apply, NGO Shipbreaking Platform adds. 

Both Basel and EU waste regulations require demolition at a yard approved by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or the European Union.

The tactic has worked in the past and NGO Shipbreaking Platform has been seeking the arrest of vessels and offshore units it feels represent illegal waste exports.

It has made claims against the 4,585-ceu vehicle carrier City of Antwerp (built 1988) — laid up at the port of Antwerp — and the 38,282-gross-ton barge carrier Tide Carrier (renamed Harrier, built 1989), under arrest in Norway for allegedly attempting to avoid environmental regulations.

One demolition broker told TradeWinds that although the Atlantic Cartier, operated by Grimaldi Group company Atlantic Container Lines, is heading for Alang, it has not yet been declared as “sold” by its exclusive broker and its final resting place has not yet been determined.

TradeWinds first reported the 3,370-lane-metre ship as sold for scrapping in Alang on 20 July.

The Atlantic Cartier is heading for India around the Cape of Good Hope with its company name blacked out on the side of the ship, a common practice for vessels going for demolition. It is also not uncommon for final voyage ships to avoid the heavy tolls of the Suez Canal.

NGO Shipbreaking Platform claimed that Grimaldi has slipped the net in the past by demolishing the sistership, the 3,370-lane-metre Atlantic Conveyor (built 1985), in Alang last year allegedly in breach of environmental regulations.

It said it would ask the authorities to monitor the sale of the 3,370-lane-metre Atlantic Compass (built 1985), the last in the series of G3-class con-ros that NGO Shipbreaking Platform believes Grimaldi intends to demolish soon.

Grimaldi is replacing these older ships with newer, larger, more efficient G4-class vessels with capacity for 3,800 teu, along with 1,307 cars — up 31% on G3s — and 28,900 square metres for large ro-ro cargoes or containers, a 45% increase. No comment was available from Grimaldi as TradeWinds went to press.

NGO Shipbreaking Platform has also been disappointed by the sale of the 592,300-cbf reefers Hansa Bremen (built 1989) and Hansa Lubeck (built 1990). Both ships have arrived for demolition in Alang.

They were flagged outside of Europe and NGO Shipbreaking Platform concedes that “technically” they are not subject to Basel or EU waste shipment laws.

But it says the owner, Sweden’s Holy House Shipping, is a European company with a strong corporate social-responsibility policy and should demolish ships in line with European law.

Wirana was the cash buyer involved in buying the two reefers.