Technological and economic study of ship recycling in Egypt

The ship recycling industry is growing rapidly. It is estimated that the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) decision to phase-out single hull tankers by 2015 will result in hundreds of ships requiring disposal. At present, the ship recycling industry is predominantly based in South Asia. Due to the bad practice of current scrapping procedure, the paper will highlight the harm occurring to health, safety and environment. The efforts of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) which led to the signing of the Hong Kong International Convention are also reviewed. The criteria and standards required to reduce the risk and damage to the environment are discussed and a proposed plan for the safe scrapping of ships is then presented. A technological and economic study for the ship recycling in Egypt is carried out as a case study. This includes the ship recycling facility size and layout. The equipment and staff required to operate the facility are also evaluated. A cost analysis is then carried out. This includes site development, human resources, machineries and equipment. A fuzzy logic approach is used to assess the benefits of the ship breaking yard. The use of the fuzzy logic approach is found suitable to make decisions for the ship breaking industry. Based on given constraints, the proposed model has proved capable of assessing the profit and the internal rate of return.