BIR Convention: A Problem to be Contained

Bashar Ehsan and his colleagues at United Arab Emirates-based Ala Metals LLC were having the same problem as many nonferrous scrap companies who ship through Hong Kong: containers were arriving at their destinations with copper scrap missing but with the container’s seal unbroken.

 

According to information presented at the International Trade Council meeting at the 2012 BIR (Bureau of International Recycling) World Convention, Ehsan said throughout 2011 and 2012 containers shipped from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, through the Port of Hong Kong to China have been arriving at their destinations with weight shortages “ranging from 200 kilograms to 10 metric tons.”

 

Different shipping lines and different buyers were involved, but “the seals always remain intact and the weight shortages are consistent” when the containers are shipped through Hong Kong and then forwarded to a destination in China, said Ehsan.

 

The company’s tracking procedures and investigation have pointed to the containers’ overland journey from the River Trade Terminal through the New Territories in Hong Kong as the likely weak link in the security chain. 

 

According to Ala Metals’ findings, the containers are diverted by truck drivers to scrap yards in the Tin Shui Wai neighborhood of Hong Kong. “In these scrap yards, the thieves have time and expertise to break the hub bolt of the seal handle or rivet of the locking rod without breaking the original shipping line seal,” said Ehsan. Ehsan also showed a video clip demonstrating how thieves can break into containers in this manner.

 

Another presenter at the International Trade Council session, Pottengal Mukandan of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), London, said such efforts to steal from containers are organized. “Only people who know what’s in [the container]” and who know how to re-sell the scrap are likely to plan out and risk the crime.

 

“There are at least five ways to break into a container without breaking the seal that we are aware of,” Mukandan said. He added that testing conducted by the IMB showed that it can take as little as three seconds to break into a container without breaking the seal, with the average break-in time being 3.9 minutes.

 

Marc Beerlandt of the Antwerp office of Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) also pointed to organized rings as the culprit for container break-ins, noting that it is a crime that starts with “communication leaks.”

 

MSC will soon be introducing an “E-seal,” a tracking device and system that Beerlandt told attendees “will improve the visibility of your supply chain.”

 

Fraud was another crime referred to by presenters at the session, including Mukandan, who outlined several cases of container shipping misrepresentation and fraud.

 

Former Recycling International writer Gert van der Have offered a presentation on the case of a con artist who created a phony scrap company (complete with a website that included photos of other companies’ scrap yards) and then succeeded in collecting payment on several shipments that never took place.

 

“In the scam I identified in August 2011 some 12 companies that  have been defrauded of $10 million—but this figure might be higher, as many don’t like to be recognized as a victim in these cases,” said van der Have, who added that the victims were based in East Asia and South Asia.

 

The 2012 BIR World Recycling Convention was May 30-June 1 at the Rome Cavalieri Hotel in Italy.