Dutch ship owner fined for scrapping violation

The government of the Netherlands has fined a subsidiary of the Rotterdam, Netherlands-based WEC Lines for sending a retired containership to a non-sanctioned ship scrapping facility in India several years ago.

According to a news item on the Maritime-Executive.com website, the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service took action against the shipping line pertaining to the retirement of the HMS Laurence in 2013.

According to the Public Prosecution Service, Holland Maas Scheepvaart Beheer II BV (the WEC subsidiary) shipped the HMS Laurence to a company in Alang, India, which ran counter to the EU’s European Waste Shipment Regulation (EWSR).

A fine of €780,000 ($890,000) was levied by the prosecutor, plus an additional settlement of €2.2 million ($2.5 million) charged as a remittance of the amount the ship owner is estimated to have earned from the transaction.

The EWSR implements into EU law provisions of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. The regulation includes a ban on the export of what are considered hazardous wastes to non-OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries. The amount of fuel, petroleum and other chemicals found within ships can cause them to be covered by the regulation.