16� 10 March 2017PEOPLE

A record number of more than 200 shipbreakers, shipbrokers and buyers at the cutting edge of ship demolition descended on Singa-pore for last week’s TradeWinds Ship Recycling Forum, including presidents of the Indian, Bangla-desh and Pakistan recycling asso-ciations.

A packed afternoon workshop discussed the improvements at the waterfront, including a rapidly growing number of Alang ship-

breakers now holding a statement of compliance with the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (Hong Kong Convention).

Health, safety and environmen-tal standards in Bangladesh, Pa-kistan, Turkey, China and the US were also discussed and debated by a panel including John Stawpert of the International Chamber of Shipping, Francesca Carlsson of NGO Shipbreaking Platform, Jim Heath of Lloyd’s Register, Henning

Gramann of GSR Services, Nitin Kanakiya of Triveni Ship Break-ers and Shree Ram Group owner Chetan Patel.

Differences were put aside for a few hours as participants en-joyed an evening that overlooked Marina Bay and was hosted by Al Salam Insurance director Dani Pa-tel and Junichi Hirata of Japan’s ClassNK.

But it was soon back to busi-ness with a warm welcome from principal sponsor Gaurav Mehta of Best Oasis/Priya Blue followed

Shiprecycling experts Jon Chaplin Singapore

CATCH UP: Sanjay Mehta (left) of Best Oasis/Priya Blue with Ship Recycling Industries Association president Jivrajbhai Patel.

TOP BRASS: Bangladesh Ship Breakers’ Association president Abu Taher (left) with Pakistan Ship Breakers’ Association chairman Ikhlaq Memon.

ON THE BEACH: Team Best Oasis/Priya Blue.

NETWORKING: Clarksons Platou director Darren Lepper (left) and Felix Hargreaves of Gulfstar.

AT THE VENUE: (From left) Akira Aoyagi, chief advisor at ClassNK Consulting Service; Rohit Agarwal, sustainable shiprecycling manager at Best Oasis/Priya Blye; and GSR Services chief executive Henning Gramann.

STRONG TURNOUT: The Pakistan delegation flank Obaidullah Jan (centre), advisor to the chief minister of the environment in the government of the Pakistani province of Balochistan.

ALL SMILES: (From left) Md Manzur Alam, director of Prime Enterprise Ship Recycling Industries; Md Zahirul Islam, managing director of PHP Shipbreaking & Recycling Industries; Md Nayeem Shah Imran of Bhatiyari Ship Breakers; and Dharmesh Jani of Creative Consultants.

CAREY BOHJANEN: Chief executive and managing director of Sustainable Finance Advisory.

JUNICHI HIRATA: ClassNK.

DANI PATEL: Director of Dubai-based Al Salam Insurance.

TALKING POINTS: Francesca Carlsson (left) of NGO Shipbreaking Platform and Nikos Mikelis, architect of the Hong Kong Convention while at the IMO.

Photos: TRADEwINDS EvENTS

10 March 2017� 17PEOPLE

JOHN STAWPERT: Manager of trade and the environment at the International Chamber of Shipping.

EVENING OUT: (From left) German Shipowners’ Association (VDR) managing director Dr Martin Kroger; Lenny B Conil, vice-president of research and innovation (Asia) at Veolia; and Royal Belgium Shipowners’ Association managing director Wilfried Lemmens.

HAVING FUN: (From left) International Ship Recycling Association secretary general Bernhard Veldhoven, Troyee Bannerjee of Ace Ship Recycling and Bart Lawrence of Compass Maritime Services.

GAURAV MEHTA: Best Oasis/Priya Blue.

JIM HEATH: Principal shiprecycling specialist at Lloyd’s Register Marine & Offshore.

MARIA BRUN SKIPPER: Danish Shipowners’ Association.

descend on Singaporeby a hard-hitting debate between the “godfather of shiprecycling” Nikos Mikelis and NGO Shipbreak-ing Platform’s Carlsson on wheth-er shipowners are “keeping demo in the dark ages by sending ships to South Asia”. A poll of delegates immediately after the debate showed that 23% of those who vot-ed agreed.

The lively exchange of views came hard on the presentation from AP Moller-Maersk group’s head of sustainability, Annette Stube, who called on other ship-

owners to follow AP Moller-Mae-rsk’s lead and get involved in how ships are recycled.

That may take some time, ac-cording to the commercial panel, whose speakers included Gaurav Mehta of Best Oasis, Dr Anil Shar-ma of GMS, Rakesh “Billu” Khetan of Wirana — a group that reason-ably can claim to represent the cash-buying element of 80% of all large commercial vessels sold for scrap.

Bangladesh breaker Md Zahirul Islam, managing director of PHP

Ship Breaking & Recycling In-dustries, urged owners and class societies to support the safety and social improvements at his Chittagong-based outfit, and said he looked forward to a national so-lution to the problem of treating, storing and disposing of hazard-ous waste from ships.

Delegates themselves were “beached”, courtesy of Sanjay Me-hta of Priya Blue, who took over Sentosa’s Tanjong Beach Club to host a highly spirited closing par-ty.

MATTERS TO DISCUSS: Nayim Masani (left) of YS Investments with Ritesh Agarwal of JRD Industries.

DR ANIL SHARMA: Founder, president and chief executive of GMS.

ANNETTE STUBE: Head of sustainability at AP Moller-Maersk group.

CHETAN PATEL: Owner of Shree Ram Group.

KEIJI TOMODA: Chairman of the shiprecycling committee at the Japanese Shipowners’ Association.