Indian ship scrapping sector ready for growth

The Indian Parliament has recently passed legislation in line with the Hong Kong Convention to boost national ship recycling efforts.

The Ship Recycling Act 2019 is part of the nation’s plan to increase recycling capacity by 40% by 2024. India’s shipping minister Mansukh Lal Mandaviya says India envisions boosting its global share of the market to at least 60%.

Doing so could potentially double the sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP to about US$ 2.2 billion (EUR 2 billion).

Another benefit of enacting the law is that direct jobs in the recycling sector are expected to double to about 90 000.

Mandaviya adds: ‘There are 53 000 merchant ships globally. Every year, 1 000 are recycled and 300 are recycled in India, which is 30% of global recycling. After the Recycling Bill, we expect it to touch 60% as the bill provides for acceding to the Hong Kong International Convention. We expect to receive ships for recycling from many nations.’

India, Pakistan, China and Bangladesh jointly process 90% of the world’s discarded vessels.