{"id":448101,"date":"2025-12-15T06:45:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T06:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/448101\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T06:45:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T06:45:23","slug":"no-work-indias-alang-the-worlds-largest-graveyard-of-ships-is-dying-shipping-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/448101\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No work\u2019: India\u2019s Alang, the world\u2019s largest graveyard of ships, is dying | Shipping News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alang, India<\/strong> \u2013 Standing on the windswept coastline of the Arabian Sea in the western Indian state of Gujarat, Ramakant Singh looks towards the empty, endless horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the olden days, ships lined up at this yard like buffaloes before a storm,\u201d says the 47-year-old. \u201cNow, we count the arrivals on our fingers.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ramakant works at Alang \u2014 the world\u2019s largest ship-breaking yard, located in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s home state. For two decades, Ramakant has cut apart vessels as large as oil tankers and cargo carriers that sailed in from Europe and other Asian countries for his livelihood.<\/p>\n

With its unique tidal pattern and gently sloping beach, Alang in the 1980s became the backbone of India\u2019s ship recycling industry, where ships could be beached and dismantled at a minimal cost.<\/p>\n

Over the decades, more than 8,600 vessels \u2014 collectively weighing roughly 68 million tonnes of light displacement tonnage (LDT), which is the actual weight of a ship without fuel, crew and cargo \u2014 have been taken apart here, accounting for nearly 98 percent of India\u2019s total and about a third of the global ship recycling volume.<\/p>\n

\"AlangRows of rescue boats wait to be resold, alongside chains, lifejackets and other salvaged remnants at Alang yard [Anuj Behal\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n

Across the world\u2019s oceans, an ageing fleet of cargo ships, cruise liners, and oil tankers is nearing the end of its life. Of the roughly 109,000 vessels still in service, nearly half are more than 15 years old \u2014 rusting giants that will soon be retired.<\/p>\n

Each year, close to 1,800 ships are declared unfit to sail and sold for recycling. Their owners pass them on to international middlemen, known as cash buyers \u2014 operating out of global shipping hubs such as Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong. These brokers, in turn, resell the vessels to dismantling yards in South Asia, where the final act of a ship\u2019s life unfolds.<\/p>\n

In Alang, ships are driven ashore at high tide \u2014 a process called beaching. Once grounded, hundreds of workers cut them apart piece by piece, salvaging steel, pipes, and machinery. Almost everything \u2014 from cables to cupboards \u2014 is resold for use by construction and manufacturing industries.<\/p>\n

However, over the past decade, the number of ships arriving on Alang\u2019s coast has dwindled. Once a skyline of giant hulls that looked like high-rise buildings against the town\u2019s asbestos roofs, only a few cruise ships and cargo carriers dot the horizon today.<\/p>\n

\u201cEarlier, there was plenty of work for everyone,\u201d Chintan Kalthia, who runs one of the few yards still open, tells Al Jazeera. \u201cNow, most of the workers have left. Only when a new ship beaches do a few come back to Alang. My own business is down to barely 30-40 percent of what it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to data from India\u2019s Ship Recycling Industries Association, 2011-12 marked Alang\u2019s busiest financial year since it began operations in 1983, with a record 415 ships dismantled. Since then, the yard has faced a steep decline \u2014 of the 153 plots developed along the 10km (6-mile) coastline, only about 20 remain functional, and even they are operating at barely 25 percent capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what\u2019s going wrong in Alang has multiple reasons,\u201d says Haresh Parmar, secretary of the Ship Recycling Industries Association (India). \u201cThe biggest is that globally, shipowners are not retiring their old vessels. Post-COVID, a surge in demand led to record profits in shipping. With freight rates soaring, owners are pushing ships beyond their usual operational life instead of sending them for dismantling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AlangFrom cables to cupboards, almost all materials are reclaimed and repurposed for construction and manufacturing markets [Anuj Behal\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n

A key factor behind the surge in freight rates is global disruptions. Israel\u2019s genocidal war in Gaza has had a ripple effect on global trade routes, with Yemen\u2019s Houthi rebels repeatedly attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea in solidarity with the Palestinians. The resulting security crisis has forced ships to bypass the Suez Canal and instead take the longer Cape of Good Hope route, sending freight rates soaring and delaying cargo worldwide.<\/p>\n

Similarly, an analysis by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) conducted in June 2022 found that the Russia-Ukraine war and other Middle East tensions had pushed up marine fuel costs by more than 60 percent, adding to operational expenses and shipping delays.<\/p>\n

Together, these factors have sharply reduced the supply of end-of-life ships heading to Alang. \u201cWhen owners are earning well, they don\u2019t scrap their vessels,\u201d says Parmar. \u201cThat\u2019s why our yards are standing empty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compliance raising costs<\/p>\n

But that is not the only reason why Alang is struggling.<\/p>\n

India\u2019s ship recycling industry has undergone a significant transformation since the country acceded to the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships (HKC) in November 2019, becoming one of the first top ship-breaking nations to do so. Under the HKC and the 2019 Recycling of Ships Act, yards at Alang upgraded their infrastructure, installed pollution control systems, lined hazardous waste storage pits, trained workers, and maintained detailed inventories of toxic materials used in vessels.<\/p>\n

These measures made Alang-Sosiya Ship Recycling Yards (ASSRY) one of the most compliant ship-recycling clusters in the developing world, with 106 of ASSRY yards having received HKC Statements of Compliance (SoC). Sosiya is a village located right next to Alang on the Gulf of Khambhat coast in Gujarat. Together, Alang and Sosiya form the entire stretch of beach where ship-breaking plots operate.<\/p>\n

But achieving these standards came at a high cost: each yard had to invest between $0.56m and $1.2m to meet compliance norms, raising operational costs at a time when competition from neighbouring countries remains fierce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThink of it like a roadside eatery versus a global burger chain \u2014 the chain has shinier rules, cleaner kitchens, and safer gear, but you pay extra for the sparkle. The Hong Kong Convention works the same way,\u201d said Kalthia, whose company, RL Kalthia Ship Breaking Private Limited, became the first ship recycling facility in India to receive HKC compliance certification from ClassNK in 2015, as their website shows. ClassNK is a leading Japanese ship classification society that audits and certifies international maritime safety and environmental standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompliance makes things safer and brings us up to international standards \u2014 it gives us an edge only on paper,\u201d says Chetan Patel, a yard owner at Alang. \u201cBut it has also raised costs significantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, in turn, has made it hard for Alang\u2019s ship-breakers to offer prices comparable to those of competitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen neighbouring markets can pay more, shipowners go there,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n

\"AlangUnused ships quickly become a financial drain, forcing owners to offload them, even if that means dismantling them long before their intended lifespan [Anuj Behal\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n

Competing ship-recycling yards are thriving. In Bangladesh\u2019s Chattogram port and Pakistan\u2019s Gadani yard, shipowners are being offered $540-550 per LDT and $525-530 per LDT, respectively, compared with $500-510 per LDT at Alang.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t match the rates offered by Bangladesh and Pakistan,\u201d says Parmar. \u201cIf we tried, we\u2019d be running at a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is reflected clearly in the data: the number of ships decommissioned in India dropped from 166 in 2023 to 124 in 2024. In contrast, Turkiye\u2019s figures nearly doubled to 94 from 50, and Pakistan\u2019s rose from 15 to 24 during the same period.<\/p>\n

Supporting industries struggle<\/p>\n

Alang is not just a ship-breaking yard, but a vast recycling ecosystem that sustains the surrounding region\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n

From the coastal town of Trapaj \u2014 the last big settlement before Alang \u2014 an 11km (7-mile) stretch of road is lined with sprawling, makeshift shops selling remnants of decommissioned ships. Everything that used to be part of life at sea eventually finds its way here: rusted chains, rescue boats, refrigerators, ceramic crockery, martini glasses, treadmills from shipboard gyms, air conditioners from cabins, and chandeliers from officers\u2019 quarters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever is there on the ship, we own it,\u201d says Parmar. \u201cBefore the cutting begins, all valuable items are auctioned and reach these stores.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AlangAll remnants of life on the ocean wind up here \u2013 corroded chains, rescue boats, ceramic crockery, martini glasses, and treadmills from ship gyms [Anuj Behal\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n

Ram Vilas, who runs a ceramic shop selling salvaged crockery by the kilo, says most of his customers used to come from commercial establishments across Gujarat. \u201cNow, business has gone dead,\u201d he tells Al Jazeera. \u201cThis stretch you see doesn\u2019t even have one-tenth of the crowd it used to. With fewer ships coming in, we don\u2019t have enough stock to fill our shops.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ripple effects of Alang\u2019s decline extend to other industries as well. Waste is handled by specialised facilities, while reusable steel is supplied to more than 60 induction furnaces and 80 rerolling mills, some 50km (30 miles) away in Bhavnagar, converting it into TMT bars \u2013 reinforced steel rods \u2013 and other construction materials.<\/p>\n

But with fewer ships arriving, the supply of scrap steel has dropped sharply, disrupting operations of furnaces, mills, and hundreds of small businesses that depend on ship-derived goods. More than 200 retail and wholesale shops that once bustled with activity now face dwindling sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cGas plants, rolling mills, furnace units, transporters, drivers \u2014 everyone connected to this chain has lost their livelihood,\u201d says Parmar.<\/p>\n

\"AlangMost shops are stacked with whatever the ship-breaking yards have yielded that day [Anuj Behal\/Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n

In Bhavnagar, 29-year-old Jigar Patel, who runs a flange manufacturing unit, says his business has suffered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI opened my unit in 2017, seeing the opportunity with steel sheets easily available from Alang,\u201d he says. \u201cBut in the past two years, the slowdown has hit hard. Now, I have to buy sheets from Jharkhand. It\u2019s not just expensive, but the raw steel is harder to cut and process. The Alang sheets were more malleable and ductile \u2014 they were made for work and of international standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workers at Alang, most of them migrants from poorer Indian states in the north and east, including Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, have also begun to leave. \u201cThey only show up when ships arrive at the docks,\u201d Vidyadhar Rane, president of the Alang-Sosiya Ship Recycling and General Workers\u2019 Association, tells Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cYard owners call them when there is work. The rest of the time, they find other jobs in nearby towns,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

At its peak, Alang employed more than 60,000 workers. Today, that number has shrunk to fewer than 15,000, according to the union.<\/p>\n

Ramakant, who first arrived in Alang at the age of 35, recalls working for seven straight years before the slowdown began. \u201cNow, I only return when my employer calls,\u201d he says, adding that he spends the rest of his time working in the industrial town of Surat.<\/p>\n

The work at the yard, he admits, has become far safer than it once was. \u201cThis was once the deadliest job \u2014 we would see workers dying every other day. Now there\u2019s training, safety gear, and order,\u201d Ramakant says, looking towards the silent coast.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what\u2019s the point of safety when there\u2019s no work? Everything now depends on whether the next [ship] arrives at the yard or not.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alang, India \u2013 Standing on the windswept coastline of the Arabian Sea in the western Indian state of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":448102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3774,1567,50,4690,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-448101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-asia","9":"tag-india","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-shipping","12":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115722240444126993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}