President of the Ship owners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) Mr Greg Ogbeifun made the plea in Lagos that Nigeria’s ship-breaking and recycling sector has a vast potential for investors to tap.
All along shipwrecks were outsourced to foreign countries for breaking and recycling. The cost of moving such wrecks had made it unprofitable. In order to maximize the profit, the wrecked ships which are abandoned midstream and around waterfronts within the country can be stripped in local ship-breaking corporate utilizing the best available technology.
“Until the 1960s, ship-breaking was considered a highly mechanised operation concentrated in industrialised countries such as the U.S., U.K., Germany and Italy. From the early 1980s, ship owners sent their vessels to the scrap yards of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Vietnam,’’ Ogbeifun said.
Companies such as Starzs Marine and Engineering Ltd., operators of the Starzs Shipyard at Onne, have commenced shipyard expansion to incorporate ship-breaking. “The Indians have also indicated interest in partnership in ship-breaking with Starzs Marine and Engineering Ltd at Onne, Rivers,’’ he said.
Ogbeifun was optimistic that investment in the sector and the readiness to build capacity in the use of the required technology, would open the sector for greater number of jobs for Nigerians.
Source: City News
