Recycler sees US license as a route to retire shadow-fleet ships
GMS says a sanctioned-vessel recycling permit could become a template
Ship recycler Global Marketing Systems argues that a recent US Treasury license permitting the recycling of sanctioned vessels could become a legal route to take ageing shadow-fleet ships out of service for good.
The license, approved earlier this year, authorised the recycling of four sanctioned container ships in what the company describes as the first such permitted scrapping of vessels under sanctions. Speaking on an industry webcast, GMS founder and chief executive Anil Sharma called it a precedent for removing high-risk vessels through tightly controlled, case-by-case recycling, describing scrapping as a terminal action rather than any softening of sanctions.
The shadow fleet has expanded on the back of Western sanctions on Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil, and many of its ships carry opaque ownership, thin insurance and poor maintenance. Sharma summed up the problem by saying sanctions had not ended the trade but had eliminated the rules around it, and pointed to a stricken tanker off Yemen as a warning of what can go wrong. Any future approvals, he suggested, would need coordination between the US, EU and UK alongside banks, insurers, class societies, flag states and recyclers.
