A/HRC/12/26 page 6 10. If carried out in an environmentally sound and a safe manner, shipbreaking represents the best method of disposing of end-of-life vessels. The practice is inherently sustainable, given that 95 per cent of a ship can be recycled: steel is rerolled and used in construction; machinery and equipment are reused; and oils and fuels are reused or recycled. Shipbreaking also provides employment opportunities to tens of thousands of persons. It is estimated that shipbreaking yards employ directly approximately 30,000 workers worldwide, whereas between 100,000 and 200,000 persons are engaged in different businesses related to shipbreaking activities. 11. Nevertheless, there is growing concern over the conditions in which shipbreaking takes place. In spite of an increased international awareness on the issue in past years, shipbreaking continues to be one of the most hazardous occupations in the world due to the extremely poor working practices and environmental conditions prevailing in many shipbreaking yards. 1. The ship-dismantling process: an overview 12. Worldwide, around 600 end-of-life ships of 500 gross tonnage (GT) and above are broken up and recycled every year. The current economic downturn has created a notable increase in the shipbreaking business. It is foreseen that the shipbreaking industry will increase even further, given the impending phase-out of single-hulled oil tankers, which will result in thousands of ships being dismantled over the next 10 years. 13. There are three major types of ship-dismantling processes: (a) A highly mechanized process with light manpower, which only exists in industrialized countries, with capabilities of around 1,000 tonnes/man/year; (b) A non-mechanized process with very heavy manpower, used in South Asia, with a productivity of a few dozen tonnes/man/year; (c) An intermediate process with limited equipment but also significant manpower, which is used in Turkey, China and in some yards in Latin America, with a productivity of a few hundred tonnes/man/year. 14. The economics of ship dismantling are primarily driven by market factors. The choice of the dismantling location is influenced in particular by the metal price a facility can offer to the shipowner or to the intermediary “cash buyer” company. This price in turn depends on the demand for recycled steel in the area concerned and on the costs of the recycling operations. 15. In the 1970s, ships were taken apart where they were built: in the dry docks of industrialized countries. From early 1980s, the high costs associated with the hazardous nature of this activity coupled with the development of stricter environmental regulations drove shipowners to look elsewhere for disposing of their vessels. Due to the availability of cheap manpower and the presence of a market for second-hand equipment and components, most end-of-life vessels are nowadays dismantled in India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan.