A study from the NGO Shipbreaking Platform and Transport & Environment finds that the European Union has 30 approved ship-recycling yards with roughly 1.3 million LDT of capacity — and used just 5 percent of it between 2019 and 2025.

Of 706 EU-flagged or EU-owned ships scrapped worldwide over that period, totaling 6.7 million LDT, only 153 vessels went to EU facilities. That is 22 percent of the ships but only 5 percent of the tonnage. Meanwhile 345 ships, representing 66 percent of the tonnage, were beached in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, with most of the remainder dismantled in Turkey. The report identifies 102 ships that changed flag shortly before dismantling, a maneuver that sidesteps EU rules.

“This is not just an environmental issue. It is a profound failure of EU industrial strategy, prioritizing strategic resilience and material autonomy on paper, while in reality letting valuable steel be lost to third markets,” said Philippine Bernard, policy officer at the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.

The groups argue the figures show the EU is not enforcing its own Ship Recycling Regulation. Roughly 12,000 EU-owned ships are expected to reach the end of their working lives over the next decade.