Bangladesh in JV with Dutch shipbreaker

Ananda Group’s chairman, Abdullahel Bari, and Greendock’s president, Doebren Mulder, signed the agreement to develop a combination wharf in Chittagong to repair and dismantle ships as well as to build large vessels up to Panamax size at the same location.

With support from Greendock, the Ananda Group will introduce the latest technology for the safe dismantling of vessels in order to achieve a zero accident rate and reduce pollution. Greendock developed a ship recycling facilities concept to dismantle large sea going vessels in a safe, environmentally sound and efficient manner by using a technology for which a worldwide patent has been applied for. Ananda will be the first to introduce this new technology and the total ship recycling project is estimated to cost 50 million Euros, including a waste incinerator to change waste into energy.

Currently, old ships are broken on beaches in a very unscientific and unsafe manner which causes many fatal accidents and creates severe pollution problems. The Supreme Court in Bangladesh has recently imposed restrictions on importing ships which are not declared environmentally safe by the countries of origin.

In the first stage of the project, Greendock will conduct a feasibility study on the requirements for of ship recycling industries. Mulder said that Greendock is able to dismantle about 24 vessels a year and selected Bangladesh because it is much more competitive than its rivals, including China and India, in the ship breaking industry.

Bari said that the Ananda Group will be focusing on ship building and ship repairing using Greendock’s technology. ‘Ship breaking will be a bonus,’ he said. Ananda Group has so far exported seagoing vessels to Denmark, the Netherlands and Mozambique. It has orders in hand for three seagoing vessels from Germany and an oil tanker, tug boat and crane vessel for Bangladesh.