India Becomes World’s Top Ship Recycling Nation, Plans Major Capacity Expansion
New Delhi — India became the world’s largest ship recycling nation in 2025, with its share of global recycling activity rising to 35.4% from 30.1% a year earlier, according to an official fact sheet released Tuesday.
The country recycled 2.99 million gross tons of ships in 2025, up from 1.86 million gross tons in 2024, representing an increase of nearly 60%.
The Alang-Sosiya ship recycling cluster in Gujarat remains at the center of the industry, accounting for about 98% of India’s total ship recycling activity.
Recognized as the world’s largest ship recycling hub, Alang has an annual capacity of about 6 million gross tons and is supported by recycling yards, steel re-rolling mills and waste management facilities.
“Around 3.50 million metric tonnes (MMT) of steel is produced per annum at Alang without exploiting natural resources,” the fact sheet said.
The government said the cluster has undergone extensive modernization over the years and now serves as India’s primary link to the international ship recycling market.
India is also seeking to nearly double its ship recycling capacity to about 9 million light displacement tons through further development of the Alang Ship Recycling Yard.
Workforce training has been another focus of the expansion. The Safety Training and Labour Welfare Institute at Alang-Sosiya has trained more than 150,000 workers in areas including occupational safety, hazardous material handling and emergency response.
India also has ship recycling facilities operated by Amar Iron Udyog in Kolkata and Steel Industrials Kerala Limited in Kerala.
“The rise reflects India’s expanding capacity and indicates the growing competitiveness of Indian ship recycling yards in the global market,” the government said.
It added that India has achieved its Maritime India Vision 2030 goal of becoming the world’s leading ship recycling nation five years ahead of schedule. (Source: IANS)
