Our cases

Selected projects showcasing our delivery of sustainable solutions in practice.

Since 2014, we have worked across Europe and Asia to advance sustainable practices in the maritime sector, with a particular focus on ship recycling. Below are selected cases illustrating our work in practice.

Ship recycling in Bangladesh

Modernising ship recycling in Bangladesh

A decade of facilitating and driving change in Bangladesh's ship recycling industry

Since 2014, the MARHAZ team has been involved in the ship recycling sector in Bangladesh as a consultant and independent third party for Standard Chartered Bank, supporting the bank’s ship recycling clients in achieving compliance with national legislation and international standards.

Our work started as a yearly gap analysis based on KPI inspections to provide compliance status to the bank highlighting the next critical steps. But the program quickly evolved to also include workshops facilitating cultural change and process innovation to enable lasting change and continuous improvements in the ship recycling yard’s development efforts.

Today, the some of the clients we have had in our program comprise three of the most evolved ship recyclers in Bangladesh; PHP, S.N. Corporation, and Kabir Group. Companies that set the benchmark for responsible and safe recycling in Chattogram, Bangladesh.

We are proud to have been involved in this epic journey and look forward to continuing our program for the benefit of the recycling sector in Bangladesh and a due diligent approach of the financing sector.

Key Highlights

Active in Bangladesh’s ship recycling sector since 2014.
Supporting compliance with national and international standards.
Driving cultural and process transformation through workshops.
Working with the frontrunners of recyclers in Chattogram, PHP, S.N. Corporation, and Kabir Group.

IHM compliance

IHM compliance for European flagged vessels

Providing efficient inspections and IHM reporting to ensure compliance with the EU Ship Recycling Regulation and the Hong Kong Convention.

Since 2018, MARHAZ has inspected around 200 ships and a number of FPSOs for hazardous materials following the provisions of the European ship recycling regulation and the Hong Kong convention.

We have been the trusted and preferred service provider for the fishing fleet in Northern Europe as well as most of the offshore supply vessels in the North Sea with regards to developing Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM) documentation, and providing follow-up services on asbestos management.

More recently, we supported TotalEnergies in preparing the required IHM documentation, including correlation of IHM data with European Waste Codes (EWC), to enable the export of an FPSO for recycling at M.A.R.S., Denmark.

With the Hong Kong Convention now in force, and the demand for IHM development slowing down, MARHAZ is expanding its focus towards asbestos removal services for the maritime and offshore sectors, as well as land-based industry. This transition builds on our extensive experience in identifying and managing hazardous materials and we look forward to continuing our contribution to safe and responsible working environments.

Key Highlights

Inspected more than 200 ships and offshore assets since 2018.
Trusted partner for Northern Europe’s fishing fleet and North Sea offshore support sector.
Delivered IHM documentation correlated to EWC for Total Energies’ FPSO recycling in Denmark.

Smart inspections

Innovating the IHM process

Setting new industry standards for efficient, data-driven IHM inspections

From the outset, MARHAZ chose to innovate the IHM inspection process, recognising that prevailing methodologies were often overly rigid, sample-intensive, and cost-inefficient.

We re-engineered the planning phase by redesigning and creating a semi-automatic Visual Sampling Check Plan (VSCP). Instead of applying a fixed number of samples, we developed a risk-based approach where sampling requirements were determined by the vessel’s year and country of build, and, where relevant, vessel type. Where hazardous materials were already regulated at the time and place of construction, sampling could be reduced without compromising robustness.

This approach required extensive global research into the historical regulation of hazardous materials across major shipbuilding nations. The result was a more targeted and defensible sampling regime that significantly reduced workload and laboratory costs for newer vessels and those built under stringent regulatory regimes.

In parallel, we expanded the scope of IHM assessments by strengthening coverage of heavy metals and brominated flame-retardants. We introduced XRF-based screening to assess heavy metals in coatings and use of bromine in different materials, enabling laboratory analysis only where scan results indicated elevated risk. This broadened the hazard profile assessment while further optimising analytical costs.

Introducing these methodologies required close engagement with classification societies and robust statistical validation to demonstrate that our approach provided risk representation equivalent to, or better than, traditional blanket sampling regimes. Today, the use of XRF screening is recommended by classification societies, reflecting the industry adoption of methodologies MARHAZ helped pioneer.

Another curiosity, the founders of MARHAZ developed the world’s first IHM in accordance with MEPC.197(62) (2011) for a Swedish shipowner, shortly after the guidelines were issued.

Require assistance with your environmental compliance?

Let us help you with your next project. Contact us today to discuss your needs.

Get in touch