Captain Soumitro Roy of Elegant Exit Company challenges growing optimism about ship recycling: Dr Anand Hiremath's view that 'South Asia has capacity and it is improving' may be true, but capacity is not the same as progress. The Hong Kong Convention (HKC), adopted in 2009 and entering into force in 2025 unchanged, was never designed as a gold standard — it was a compromise to regulate existing practices including beaching with incremental improvements. Today it is increasingly presented as the destination, which Roy calls 'not evolution, but entrenchment.'
Scaling what already exists may sound practical but, according to Roy, it is the fastest way to ensure nothing fundamentally changes. He draws a historical parallel: men once carried cargo on their backs through ship holds — it worked, it scaled, it employed thousands, and then it disappeared. The same economies now run gantry cranes and automated terminals; workers did not vanish, they moved up the value chain. The same shift is visible at street level: the barefoot rickshaw puller has been replaced by the electric-rickshaw owner; progress did not remove livelihoods, it upgraded them.
Within this frame Roy poses an uncomfortable question: are we defending jobs or the conditions in which those jobs are performed? Manual cutting in open environments, exposure to hazardous materials, and labour operating at the edge of risk are still images associated with parts of the industry — but they are not inevitabilities, they are choices. The assertion that 'capacity cannot appear on demand' is true but incomplete: capacity appears where capital, regulation and intent align — and ship recycling is at that moment. HKC-compliant yards represent improvement, yet they do not yet represent full containment, zero discharge, dock-based dismantling or integrated circular systems.
From a supply-chain perspective, frameworks such as the EU Ship Recycling Regulation and emerging UAE models are moving toward closed-loop, industrialised processes. Calling HKC 'the solution' risks freezing the industry behind where the rest of heavy industry has already gone. The choice, according to Roy, is not between geographies or methods, but between comfort and change. There was enough breakbulk capacity, there were enough legacy systems — the world still moved on. Ship recycling will too; the only question is whether the industry leads the transition, or is forced into it like double-hull tankers were.
Key Takeaways:
1. Captain Soumitro Roy: the Hong Kong Convention was a compromise, not a destination — designed to regulate existing practices including beaching with incremental improvements.
2. Capacity is not the same as progress; change happens where capital, regulation and intent align.
3. HKC-compliant yards represent improvement but fall short of full containment, zero discharge and dock-based dismantling.
4. The EU Ship Recycling Regulation and emerging UAE models are moving toward closed-loop, industrialised processes.
5. The industry must choose between comfort and change, or risk being forced to adapt as double-hull tankers were.
