Demolition broker Ed McIlvaney is urging the European Union to increase its approved recycling shipyard list as scrap numbers fall off.

McIlvaney has tallied 221 ships heading to breakers’ yards so far in 2023, down from 258 at this point last year.

The figures “clearly emphasise the need for the European Union list to be vastly increased, specifically because those facilities which are on the approved list are only capable of recycling smaller units with few exceptions,” he said.