India emerged as the world’s top ship recycling nation in 2025, holding a 35.4% global share. Supported by the HKC-aligned Recycling of Ships Act 2019, the Alang yard drives a massive circular economy, converting end-of-life vessels into premium scrap steel.
Why In News?
India has emerged as the world's leading ship recycling nation, according to the data released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
What is Ship Recycling?
Ship recycling involves dismantling end-of-life maritime vessels to recover scrap steel, machinery, and reusable equipment, ensuring safe hazardous waste disposal while extracting raw materials.
Dismantling Process: Authorities decommission vessels and grant beaching permissions. Workers drain fuel, hydraulic fluids, and lubricating oils for authorized refineries, remove hazardous materials like asbestos and glass wool, and use gas-cutting torches to slice hulls into 300-tonne sections for furnaces.
Circular Economy: The industry recovers 95-98% of a ship's weight. Recycling one ton of scrap saves 1.1 tons of iron ore and 0.6–0.7 tons of coking coal, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 58%.
Indian Ship Recycling Industry
Alang-Sosiya Ship Recycling Yard (ASSRY): Located in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, this facility operates as the world’s largest ship graveyard, featuring 153 plots across 14 kilometers of coastline with a 4.5 million Light Displacement Tonnage (LDT) capacity.
Geographical Advantage: The Gulf of Khambhat provides a 10 to 11-meter tidal range and a 15-degree beach gradient, allowing for the natural, uninterrupted beaching of ultra-large vessels.
Capacity Growth: India increases its recycling volume to 2.99 million gross tons (GT) in 2025, marking a 60% year-on-year growth. The government executed a ₹1,224 crore master plan to expand Alang’s capacity to 9 million LDT by 2035.
Why India Leads Globally
Competitive Costs: India maintains lower operational costs; asbestos disposal costs $300 per ton compared to $800 in Turkey. Unskilled labor wages remain competitive at $4 to $6 daily.
Skilled Workforce: The Safety Training and Labour Welfare Institute at Alang trains over 120,000 workers in safe material handling and fire safety.
Regulatory Framework: The Recycling of Ships Act, 2019 mandates authorized facilities and strict recycling plans.
Global Compliance: Out of 128 operational plots, 115 facilities hold Hong Kong Convention (HKC) Statements of Compliance, establishing India as a reliable destination for green recycling.
Hong Kong International Convention (HKC)
Objectives: Adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2009 and effective from June 2025, the HKC ensures ships do not pose risks to human health or the environment during recycling.
Safety Mandates: The convention requires an Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM), a Ship Recycling Plan (SRP), and audits by classification societies to issue a "Ready for Recycling" certificate.
India’s Role: The Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) disbursed ₹53.5 crore to modernize yards, enabling rapid HKC compliance.
Economic Significance
Employment: The sector provides 15,000 direct jobs and sustains over 500,000 indirect livelihoods.
Steel Supply: Recycling generates 4.5 million tons of re-rollable steel annually, meeting 2% of India’s total steel demand.
Foreign Exchange: Recovering marine-grade steel and machinery slashes reliance on imported scrap and virgin iron ore.
Environmental and Safety Concerns
Hazardous Waste: Vessels contain asbestos, PCBs, lead, mercury, and oily sludge. While the Common Hazardous Wastes Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility (CHW-TSDF) manages waste, improper handling remains a risk.
Marine Pollution: The National Green Tribunal monitors concerns regarding toxic paint chips and hydrocarbons entering the marine ecosystem during beaching.
Worker Safety: Despite training, the industry faces hazards; in 2025, 11 workers died and 62 suffered injuries in South Asian yards.
Government Initiatives
Recycling of Ships Act, 2019: This act bans hazardous materials in new construction and regulates yard authorization.
Green Infrastructure: Yards now utilize impermeable concrete floors and negative-pressure inflatable units to isolate asbestos.
Ship-breaking Credit Note Scheme (SbCN): Shipowners receive credit notes worth 40% of the scrap value to offset up to 5% of the cost of building new vessels in India.
Challenges
EU Regulation: The European Union Ship Recycling Regulation (EUSRR) excludes Indian yards due to concerns over the beaching method, limiting access to EU-flagged vessels.
Labor Issues: Over-reliance on migrant labor and sub-contractors bypassing safety protocols to increase speed remains a critical hurdle.
Regional Competition: Bangladesh and Pakistan offer higher prices (e.g., $550 per LDT vs. India’s $500) due to heavy state subsidies.
Way Forward
Bilateral Agreements: India must negotiate with the European Union to validate the safety of its intertidal landing methods.
Technology Integration: Policymakers should subsidize heavy offshore cranes, AI-driven hazardous material tracking, and automated gas-cutting machines.
Strategic Expansion: The government must execute the Maritime Amrit Kaal Vision 2047, developing new clusters on the Eastern Coast to secure India’s status as a global hub.
Conclusion
India is turning Alang shipyards into a leading, sustainable circular maritime hub by combining the HKC-aligned Recycling of Ships Act 2019 with major capacity growth.
Source: NEWSONAIR
|
PRACTICE QUESTION Q. With reference to the "Hong Kong International Convention (HKC)", consider the following statements:
Which of the statements given above is/are correct? A) 1 only B) 1 and 3 only C) 2 and 3 only D) 1, 2, and 3 Answer: B Explanation: Statement 1 is Correct: The Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC) is a global treaty adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2009. Statement 2 is Incorrect: The convention does not completely ban the "beaching method" of ship dismantling. Instead, it aims to regulate the process to ensure it is safe and environmentally sound. Critics often point out that, unlike the European Union Ship Recycling Regulation (EU SRR) which has stricter prohibitions, the HKC effectively permits beaching if the facilities meet specific safety and environmental standards. Statement 3 is Correct: The convention mandates that ships carry an Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM). This inventory must be specific to each ship and maintained throughout its operational life, including updates for any new installations or changes to the ship's structure and equipment. |
India leads the global ship recycling industry by leveraging highly competitive, skilled labor costs, possessing an extensive 30% global market share in recycling volume, and aggressively upgrading its yards to meet international green compliance standards.
Located in Gujarat, Alang-Sosiya is the world's largest ship-breaking graveyard, featuring a unique high-tidal range that allows massive vessels to be safely beached directly on the shore for dismantling.
The Hong Kong International Convention (HKC) is a legally binding global treaty that mandates environmentally sound ship recycling by strictly regulating hazardous materials on board and certifying safe working conditions at recycling yards.
Ship recycling drives the circular economy by recovering millions of tonnes of scrap steel to feed domestic rolling mills, directly reducing the energy-intensive demand for virgin iron ore mining and conserving global resources.
© 2026 iasgyan. All right reserved
