European Shipowners urge MEPs to back two Indian ship recycling yards

European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) said the Environment Committee of the European Parliament votes on November 4 on a motion for resolution objecting to the Commission’s proposal to add two Indian ship recycling yards to the European List of Ship Recycling Facilities.

ECSA now calls on members of the European Parliament to reject the motion and to support the inclusion of the two Indian yards in the EU List.

In July 2026, ECSA welcomed the Commission’s proposal. The global shipping industry came together in September to back the proposal through a joint industry statement and issued an open letter to EU ministers urging them to adopt the list.

“The inclusion of the two Indian yards in the EU list is a long-awaited and very welcome step, which rewards investments made to meet EU standards,” said Sotiris Raptis, secretary general of European Shipowners | ECSA. “Objecting to the inclusion of facilities that comply with the stringent EU safety and environmental standards would undermine the credibility of the EU’s own legislation.”

European Shipowners has called on members of the European Parliament to support the proposal of the Commission to include the two Indian yards in the EU ship recycling list.

ECSA said the two Indian yards have been thoroughly evaluated during an extensive inspection period and were found compliant with the requirements of the EU Regulation.

A recent report of shipping association BIMCO found that roughly 16,000 ships will need recycling over the next decade.

Another BIMCO report also highlighted that European facilities are dedicated mainly to local and offshore markets, by number and by size.

Much of the new investment in Europe is going into offshore decommissioning, which is potentially far more profitable than ship recycling, so that capacity is not fully directed at larger merchant tonnage.

Absorbing large, ocean-going vessels at that scale would require space and workflows that European yards do not currently have, resulting in significant waiting times.

According to ECSA, yards outside the EU that meet the safety and environmental requirements of the EU Ship Recycling Regulation (EU SRR) can and should be recognised.