The Rewards of Compliance: Norges Bank Revokes Exclusion of Thoresen Thai Agencies PCL and Ceases the Observation of Hyundai Glovis Co Ltd.

 

Pix Credit HERE

 

Ship scrapping has been on the radar of the Norges Bank and its Ethics Council for some time. It has focused compliance resources on signalling the need for companies in its investment universe to move toward green ship recycling. That appears to have had at least some effect.

On October 3rd, the Norwegian Pension Fund Global issued the following Press Release:

Today, following advice from the Council on Ethics, Norges Bank announced its decision to revoke the exclusion of the company Thoresen Thai Agencies PCL. The company was excluded from the Fund’s investments in 2018 because of its practice in recycling of decommissioned vessels. The Council has considered that the grounds for exclusion are no longer valid and recommended that the exclusion be revoked.
Please find the Council’s recommendation here; Please find text of the Council’s recommendation decision here.


Also, following recommendation from the Council on Ethics, Norges Bank has announced its decision to cease the observation of Hyundai Glovis Co Ltd. Hyundai Glovis was placed under observation in 2022 at the recommendation of the Council on Ethics. The background was the company’s practices in recycling of decommissioned vessels. The company has now introduced a new policy for the responsible ship recycling. The Council therefore considers that there are no longer grounds for continued observation.
Please find the Council’s recommendation here: Please find the text of the Council’s recommendation decision here.

The rationales were quite straightforward:  Thoresen Thai Agencies PCL ceased ship scrapping in 2018; Hyundai Glovis Co. Ltd., introduced an acceptable new policy for the responsible ship recycling.