Shipbreaking has a huge negative impact on people and planet. A majority of the world’s ships are dismantled through a process known as beaching, in which ships are taken apart by hand on beaches, typically in South East Asia.
The practice fails to abide by European environmental and social safety standards, and is incredibly dangerous and labor intensive. As it exists now, the practice threatens the lives of workers and costal communities and poses an threat to marine and costal ecosystems.
THRUST has come together with Aseco Europe, and KCI to form CMT, Circular Maritime Technologies.
Together we will tackle the unsustainable shipbreaking practices that undergird the maritime industry. This mission comes with increasing urgency as the number of ships to be dismantled is forecast to increase in the coming years.
Our consortium will combine and develop technologies to create the world’s first circular dismantling yard, initially focusing on the largest and most contaminated ships which offer both the biggest competitive advantages, and potential impact.
CMT will change the shipbreaking market by:
- Offering competitive prices to end-of-life vessel owners against more favourable
terms and conditions. - Producing high-quality, clean, homogeneous, high dense standardised steel
packages competing at global price levels as a result of the process. - Preventing large amounts of CO2 emissions and toxic materials from being emitted into the environment, outperforming regulatory requirements globally.
- Taking the human element out of the dismantling process, leading to a high standard of safety