When the Ships Don’t Come: Alang’s Struggle in a Changing World

Along the sun‑baked shores of Gujarat’s Gulf of Khambhat, where once hundreds of rusting hulls stood beached like iron leviathans awaiting their final dismantling, a new silence has settled. Alang — long celebrated as the world’s largest ship‑breaking yard — is facing an unprecedented downturn, and with it, the livelihoods of thousands who depended on its ceaseless churn of steel and sweat.

For decades, Alang’s coastline was synonymous with recycling the giants of the seas. More than 8,600 vessels, totaling roughly 68 million tonnes of ship weight, were dismantled here, making up nearly 98 % of India’s ship recycling and about a third of the world’s total at its peak. In its busiest era, yards stretched along some 10 kilometres of coastline, employing tens of thousands of workers directly, and supporting hundreds of businesses in nearby towns.

But today that iconic landscape has changed. Whereas almost all plots once hummed with activity, only a fraction — roughly 20 out of 153 yards — see regular work, and most operate at about 25 % capacity or less. Ship arrivals have plunged dramatically from the yard’s heyday: in 2011–12, Alang dismantled 415 ships, while in the 2024–25 financial year just 113 vessels were processed — the lowest in more than two decades.

So why has this fate befallen a once‑booming industrial hub? A confluence of global and local shifts helps explain the downturn:

Global freight economics: After the pandemic, sky‑high freight rates and disrupted global trade routes made it more profitable for ship owners to keep ageing vessels in service longer rather than send them for scrap — shrinking the supply of end‑of‑life ships reaching breakers. International competition: Competing ship‑breaking centres in Bangladesh and Pakistan often offer higher prices to ship owners and less stringent environmental compliance, enticing business away from Alang. Environmental and safety rules: India’s adoption of tougher global standards such as the Hong Kong International Convention raised operating costs for yards due to investments in pollution control and worker safety — improvements that, while valuable, made Alang less price‑competitive. Financial hurdles: Banks have at times been reluctant to issue letters of credit for sanctioned vessels destined for recycling, frustrating buyers and slowing transactions for end‑of‑life ships. The effects ripple far beyond the beaches. Small businesses that once profited from the recycling economy — selling salvaged parts, steel, tools or even household goods stripped from ships — have seen demand collapse as fewer vessels arrive. Employment has also contracted sharply. At its height, Alang directly employed about 60,000 workers, but current numbers are a fraction of that, with many migrant laborers only returning to the region when ships come in.

For those who make their living here, the transformation has been stark. “The work is safer now,” said one longtime ship‑breaker, acknowledging improvements in working conditions, “but safety doesn’t help if there is no work.”

There are modest signs of cautious recovery; official figures suggest a 13 % increase in ship arrivals in parts of 2025 compared with the previous year, offering a glimmer of hope. Moreover, Indian authorities have provided duty reductions, plot‑rent cuts and incentives for environmental compliance to encourage operators. Yet industry leaders caution that these are small ripples in a much larger tide of structural change — from global shipping economics to competitive pressures abroad.

Alang’s decline is not only an economic story but a cultural one. The yard was once a symbol of industrial India’s ability to reclaim and repurpose the world’s maritime detritus — a place where steel from decommissioned ships flowed into construction, manufacturing, and infrastructure across the region. Now, as it faces reduced activity, the sands of the once‑bustling yard bear testament to a shifting global landscape where even longstanding industrial giants must adapt or risk fading into history.

AI Image Disclaimer Visuals are AI‑generated illustrations and are not real photographs.

Sources (News): Al Jazeera

• News.Az reporting on Alang’s decline and industry conditions.