India’s Gujarat state has decided to restart shipbreaking operations at Sachana yard in Jamnagar district after eight years. Shipbreaking activities at the yard were suspended amid a dispute as to whether the yard was part of a marine national park or Gujarat Maritime Board. The Gujarat government has successfully resolved a land dispute to announce the restart of shipbreaking activities at Sachana. A portion of the Sachana yard was allegedly within the limits of a marine national park. In 2012, the Gujarat High Court, ordered the suspension of all ship-breaking activities at the yard until it received necessary environmental clearances.
This decision is in line with the government emphasis on encouraging ship and motor vehicle recycling in the country to generate more ferrous scrap for the domestic steel industry. The shipbreaking yard in Sachana will be modeled similar to the Alang ship recycling yard, as per the government directive. The resumption in operations at the yard could generate around 10,000 jobs in the coastal town.
Alang has enough capacity, said a shipbreaker, this may divert a few ships to Sachana, otherwise, there will not be any significant increase.
India’s Alang shipyard is a preferred destination for green recycling of scrapped vessels. The yard recycles over 2.5-3mn ldt tonnages every year. India’s imported scrapped ships volume plunged sharply in the second quarter of 2020 in which 98 ships were dismantled, globally. Of these, 60 ships were sold to the Indian subcontinent and 32 were recycled at Alang; 20 in Bangladesh, and 8 in Pakistan.
Shipbreaking operations are ramping up in the Indian subcontinental. Demand and prices for demolition scrap prices have recovered from the downturn in the February to April period when lockdowns were imposed to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Prices for scrapped tankers and containers Monday were at $350-360/ldt cfr India, up by $20-25/ldt from the past week, while a shortage of supply forced Pakistan importers to pay $360-370/ldt cfr Gadani for same grades.