About the Company

Company Profile

International Shipbreaking Limited, LLC and its affiliates ("ISL") provide full service recycling operations for obsolete maritime vessels and equipment. Located in Brownsville, Texas, ISL was incorporated in 1995 to provide dismantling and recycling services to ship owners who take cradle to grave responsibility seriously for environmental hazards and worker safety. The Company was founded on the premise that the maritime industry needs a fully transparent recycling process that emphasizes worker safety and the proper documented disposal of all environmentally hazardous material. These important goals can be accomplished while harvesting the maximum amount of recyclable scrap metal and reusable equipment from the vessel. Just as ship owners take care of their ships at sea, they must also take care of the sea through the responsible retirement of their obsolete vessels. ISL has proven itself through demonstrated competence and compliance with all complex environmental regulations. The Company has grown into the preeminent maritime recycling concern in the United States and plans to expand its service offerings and unique technological capabilities worldwide.

ISL’s shipbreaking operations are based on proven large-scale production processes that focus on worker safety and environmental responsibility. We have assembled the most experienced management team in the industry and created specialized work crews that handle every aspect of the dismantling process. We have created the largest and most specialized facility for ship dismantling in the United States, with existing facilities capable of dismantling vessels up to 1,000 feet in length and 140 feet wide. Plans exist for the construction of an additional dismantling facility to accommodate vessels up to 1,200 feet in length and 200 feet in width. Since inception, ISL has recycled 14 vessels representing over 100,000 gross tons of material. ISL has successfully been awarded ship-recycling contracts each and every time it has submitted technical proposals to any government agency or commercial client.

Location:

The Port of Brownsville is an ideal location for ship recycling for many reasons. The Port is located 17 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico at Longitude: 25 degrees 57m 45s N and Latitude: 97 degrees 21m 45s W. It is a man-made ship channel that has a 40-foot draft at mean low tide. The Port is serviced by all major modes of transportation and is strategically located to provide scrap material to numerous mills in northern Mexico and the southern United States. Brownsville also has a favorable climate for year round operations. Finally, and most important, Brownsville is blessed with an experienced, energetic, fully trained and competitively priced labor force.

The Recycling Process:

The recycling process starts immediately upon entering a contract with ISL for recycling services. Sampling of environmentally sensitive material can occur prior to arrival or upon the vessels arrival in Brownsville. This sampling process helps catalogue the material onboard such as asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls ("PCBs") that then determines the recycling process and work flow necessary to remediate the material and recycle the vessel. Once in port, specialized crews are assigned specific tasks on-board the vessel in order to safely accomplish the recycling process. These processes include:

Asbestos:

Because of the known health effects from exposure to asbestos, ISL utilizes the vessel as an airtight enclosure under vacuum from HEPA filtered negative air machines. Certified asbestos crews are assigned distinct areas or phases of the vessel in order to test, abate, remove and dispose of all asbestos containing material ("ACM") throughout the Vessel. Our crew is specially trained and individually licensed to perform all aspects of ACM removal and are provided personal protective equipment such as TYVEK suits and HEPA filtered positive pressure respirators. These crews enter and leave the containment areas through three stage decontamination chambers that include a shower. All suspect material is considered ACM; which means that if it is not rubber or fiberglass, it is treated as ACM. All ACM material is heavily wetted, double bagged in 6-millimeter thick plastic bags and transported by us to an EPA approved landfill located nearby. We weigh and manifest each load of ACM, enter the information in our database and maintain records of the signed disposal manifests. We are routinely inspected by the Texas Department of Health for asbestos demolition practices.

Hazardous Waste:

Our environmental staff carefully inspects the vessel for any corrosive, toxic, reactive or ignitable waste. All items found are removed, packaged, stored and transported to EPA approved landfills. Additionally, we recycle all mercury gauges, thermometers, heat sensors, fluorescent lights, etc. The Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission routinely inspects us for compliance.

Lead:

We maintain a complete lead safety program, even though sampling often does not indicate the presence of lead. Our work crews are provided training and personal protective equipment such as respirators, uniforms that are treated as lead contaminated, decontamination shower facilities, lead free eating areas and counseling to improve personal hygiene and reduction of lead in their homes. Our employees are provided physical examinations and semi-annual blood lead tests. All employees throughout the company enjoy blood lead levels that are one half the level for medical concern standards.

Liquids:

Initially, a marine chemist comes aboard to certify all portions of the vessel that are gas free and ready for hot work. Simultaneously, our specially trained pumper crew opens all tanks, catalogues liquid volumes and commences the process of de-gassing, removing and recycling all liquids and cleaning all tanks and fuel lines. This process continues through all phases of recycling and includes ballast water, bilge water, waste water, diesel fuel, hydraulic oils and lubricants, etc. All oil/water mixtures are separated and processed to the fullest extent possible with the water being discharged to the Port sewage treatment plant and the residual oils sold to licensed used oil marketers.

Pollution Control:

We dismantle vessels with pollution control as a primary engineering aspect of the project. All storm water drainage is assigned to specific on-board tanks while care is given to keeping the decks debris free and all discharge points blocked. The ship is cut in a stair-step manner always leaving exterior bulkheads 36 inches above the deck to prevent overboard drainage and for worker safety. Insulation and cable are removed onboard and containerized for safe and reliable transport to the proper local landfills. Finally, we also have an on-site vacuum system to keep all bilges absolutely dry and oil free. All metal removed from the vessel is placed on specially constructed limestone based cutting pads that control all waste streams and storm water runoff. These cutting pads are unique to our facility.

Polychlorinated Biphenyls ("PCBs"):

We consider all pre 1975 constructed vessels to be suspect to containing PCBs. We assume all cable, gaskets, rubber and many other non-metallic material to contain PCBs and dispose of it in accordance with EPA regulations. We test paint and handle the material accordingly. We carefully remove all electrical equipment and remove capacitors and transformers prior to recycling. The capacitors and transformers are packaged and shipped to an EPA approved incinerator.

Trash:

Work crews remove and dispose of all trash and non-salable material from the Vessel. All of this material is weighed, recorded in our database and disposed of at permitted landfills located nearby.

Recycled Material:

Specially trained and outfitted ship cutters and ground cutters dismantle, sort, process and offer for sale all ferrous material from the vessel such as plate and structural steel, re-roll steel plate, cast steel, heavy melt steel scrap, tin, etc. This process occurs on the specially constructed limestone based cutting pads that control all waste streams and storm water runoff. Metal processing is also mechanized through the use of our 1,400 ton gravity fed hydraulic shear which processes mill specification 2’ by 3’ plate and structural steel scrap.

Specially trained and outfitted members of our non-ferrous recycling department sort, process and offer for sale all grades non-ferrous material such as red and yellow brasses, copper, cupro-nickel, aluminum, etc. Our crew will remove, sort, strip, recycle or dispose of all cable and wire from the vessel, offer for sale the processed non-ferrous material and safely dispose of all sheathing and resulting fluff from the wire stripping process. These crewmembers provide value added services beneficial to the ship owner that results in homogeneous finished product ready for sale to foundries throughout the world. One example of this is the processing of aluminum through our state of the art smelter, which recycles all aluminum product into 1,200 pound foundry ready RSI ("remelted scrap ingot") and records the alloy through spectrographic analysis. Like all of our processed material, this aluminum receives a premium on the market.

Reusable Equipment:

These same work crews remove and offer for sale all reusable equipment such as, anchors and chain, winches, generators, motors, pumps, fans, propellers, shafts, galley equipment, tools, etc. As discussed below, these sale proceeds are fully credited to the account of the ship owner.

Controls and Reporting:

Throughout the recycling process, ISL provides the ship owner with the proper manifests for all hazardous or regulated material removed from the vessel. Such manifests will include the type and amount of material and the permitted disposal location of the material. This process is fully transparent and is designed to give comfort to the ship owner that the recycling process is open, proper and auditable. This assures the ship owner of a clean bill of health from an environmental perspective. As well, all safety, training and labor records are open and available to the ship owner to give assurance that our labor force is properly trained, tested, certified and outfitted to perform all contract work in a safe and responsible manner.

Finally, ISL will also provide the ship owner with a complete accounting of all material sold from the vessel in the recycling process via access to an ISL designed database which includes the type of material, quantity of material and sale price received. All material offered for sale is auctioned off to the most responsible bidder and 100% of the sale proceeds are credited to the account of the ship owner. This assures the ship owner of the highest yield from the sales process and results in little or no cost to the ship owner for acting responsibly.

Safety:

We consider the safety of our work force as the most important element of the project effort. We have an on-site training facility where we train in general safety, pollution control, fall protection, use of personal protective equipment, firefighting, confined space, electrical surety, first aid, rigging, materials handling crane safety and many other topics important to vessel recycling. Each job classification is risk assessed and hardhats, safety glasses, gloves, steel toed boots, respirators and hearing protection are issued as found necessary. Our safety records and reports are open for client review because we are proud of our continuing efforts to maintain a safe work environment.

Cost Estimations:

The cost of recycling a particular vessel is dependent upon the class of vessel (tankers vs. bulk cargo carriers vs. military vessels, etc.), its size and general condition, the material used in its construction and the amount and type of regulated or hazardous material. Generally speaking, the more non-ferrous recyclable material on board a vessel, the higher the sale proceeds generated. Additionally, tankers have more ferrous material that can be recycled as re-roll plate and sells at a premium to plate and structural ferrous scrap. In turn, the lower the amount of regulated or hazardous material onboard, the lower the recycling costs. For example, steam powered vessels have more asbestos containing material than diesel powered vessels. We would be happy to work with you to determine the amount and type of material onboard a particular vessel in order to give you a better understanding of the cost involved in a particular recycling project and the anticipated recycling revenue. In many cases, depending upon the commodities markets, the recycling revenue exceeds the recycling cost resulting in net positive revenue for the ship owner.

Insurance:

ISL carries a full line of insurance coverage to protect its employees, visitors and the environment. Types of insurance include general liability, port risks, and workers compensation under the state of Texas. Additional types of insurance can be negotiated for and obtained by the ship owner to guard against additional risks particular to being a ship owner.

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