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Ship breaking or ship demolition is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for the extraction of raw materials, chiefly scrap. It may also be known as ship dismantling, ship cracking, ship recycling, or ship disposal. Modern ships have a lifespan of a 25–30 years before corrosion, metal fatigue and a lack of parts render it uneconomical to run. Ship breaking allows the materials from the ship, especially steel, to be recycled and made into new products. This lowers the demand for mined iron ore and reduces energy use in the steel-making process. Equipment on board the vessel can also be reused. While ship breaking is, in theory, sustainable, there are concerns about the use of poorer countries without stringent environmental legislation. It is also considered one of the world's most dangerous industries and very labour-intensive. In 2012, roughly 1,250 ocean ships were broken down, and their average age is 26 years. In 2013, Asia made up 92% of the tonnage of vessels demolished, out of a world total of 29,052,000 tonnes. India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan have the highest market share and are global centres of ship breaking, with Alang being the largest 'ships graveyard' in the world. The largest sources of ships are states of China, Greece and Germany respectively, although there is a greater variation in the source of carriers versus their disposal. The ship breaking yards of the Indian subcontinent employ 100,000 workers as well as providing a large amount of indirect jobs. Water-craft produce 10% of India's steel needs. As an alternative to ship breaking, ships may be sunk to create artificial reefs after being removed of hazardous materials or sunk in deep ocean waters. Storage is a viable temporary option, whether on land or afloat, though all ships will be eventually scrapped or sunk unless preserved for museums. ==History== Wooded-walled ships were simply set on fire or 'conveniently sunk'. In Tudor times, ships were also dismantled and the timber re-used. This procedure was no longer applicable with the advent of metal-hulled boats.There is evidence of the industry as early as 1838. The navy vessel HMS Temeraire had her masts, stores and guns removed and her crew paid off. She was sold by Dutch auction on 16 August 1838 to John Beatson, a shipbreaker based at Rotherhithe for £5,530. Beatson was then faced with the task of transporting the ship 55 miles from Sheerness to Rotherhithe, the largest ship to have attempted this voyage.〔〔 To accomplish this he hired two steam tugs from the Thames Steam Towing Company and employed a Rotherhithe pilot named William Scott and twenty five men to sail her up the Thames, at a cost of £58.〔 The shipbreakers undertook a thorough dismantling, removing all the copper sheathing, rudder pintles and gudgeons, copper bolts, nails and other fastenings to be sold back to the Admiralty. The timber was mostly sold to house builders and shipyard owners, though some was retained for working into specialist commemorative furniture.〔 The ship's final voyage was immortalised by William Turner's painting The Fighting ‘Temeraire’, Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up, 1838. In 1880, Denny Brothers of Dumbarton used scrap maritime steel in their shipbuilding. Many other nations began to purchase British ships for scrap by the late 19th century, including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan. The Italian industry started in 1892, and the Japanese after an 1896 law had been passed to subsidise native shipbuilding. After being damaged or involved in a disaster, liner operators did not want the name of the broken ship to tarnish the brand of their passenger services. The final voyage of many Victorian ships was with the final letter of their name chipped off.〔 The armistice of 1918 brought a glut of naval 'men-o-war' into the ship breaking industry which boomed and subsequently died down in the early 1920s. In the 1930s, it became cheaper to 'beach' a boat and run her ashore as opposed to using a dry dock. The ship would have to weigh as little as possible and run ashore at full speed. Dismantling operations required a 10 feet rise of tide and close proximity to a steel-works. Electric shears, a wrecking ball and oxy-acetylene torches were used. The technique of the time is almost identical to that of developing countries today. Similarly, Thomas W. Ward, Ltd., one of the largest breakers in the United Kingdom in the 1930s, would recondition and sell all furniture and machinery. Many historical artefacts were sold at public auctions: the Cunarder Mauretania received high bids for her fittings worldwide. However, even with obsolete technology, any gunneries and military information was carefully removed.〔 Until the late 20th century, ship breaking took place in port cities of industrialized countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States. Those dismantlers that still remain in the United States work primarily on government surplus vessels. In the mid 20th century, low-cost East Asian countries began to dominate ship breaking, with countries such as Japan, then Korea and Taiwan and then China increasing their world share. For example, in 1977 Taiwan dominated the industry with more than half the market share, followed by Spain and Pakistan. Bangladesh had no capacity at all. However, the sector is volatile and fluctuates wildly, and Taiwan processed just 2 ships 13 years later as wages across East Asia rose. In 1960, after a severe cyclone, the Greek ship ''M D Alpine'' was stranded on the shores of Sitakunda, Chittagong. It could not be re-floated and so remained there for several years. In 1965, Chittagong Steel House bought the ship and had it scrapped. It took years to scrap the vessel, but the work gave birth to the industry in Bangladesh. Tightening environmental regulations resulted in increased costs of hazardous waste disposal in industrialised countries in the 1980s, causing ships to be exported to lower income nations, chiefly South Asia. This, in turn, created a far worse environmental problem, subsequently leading to the Basel Convention. In 2004 a Basel Convention decision officially classified old ships as “toxic waste”, preventing them from leaving a country without the permission of the importing state. This has led to a resurgence of recycling in environmentally-compliant locations in developed countries, especially in former ship building yards. On 31 December 2005, the French Navy's ''Clemenceau'' left Toulon to be dismantled in Alang, India despite protests over improper disposal capabilities and facilities for the toxic wastes. On 6 January 2006 the Supreme Court of India temporarily denied access to Alang, and the ''Conseil d'État'' ordered ''Clemenceau'' to return to French waters. Able UK in Hartlepool received a new disassembly contract to use accepted practices in scrapping the ship. The dismantling started on 18 November 2009 and the break-up was completed by the end of 2010, and the event was considered a turning point in the treatment of redundant vessels.〔 Europe and the United States have actually had a resurgence in ship scrapping since the 1990s. In 2009 the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association won a legal case prohibiting all substandard ship breaking. For 14 months the industry could not import ships and thousands of jobs were lost before the ban was annulled. That same year, the global recession and lower demand for goods led to an increase in the supply of ships for decommissioning. The rate of scrapping is inversely correlated to the freight price, which collapsed in 2009. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ship breaking」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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