Eyeing 60% share of global ship recycling business, shipping industry slates to contribute to higher GDP

New Delhi, December 25: "With a new legislation in place, India eyes to garner at least 60 per cent of the global ship recycling business and emerge as a key destination for recycling warships and other ships", affirmed Mansukh Lal Mandaviya, holding the independent charge of the Shipping Ministry. He also exuded confidence that contribution from ship recycling activities to the country's GDP would reach USD 2.2 billion, almost double compared to the current level.

 

Gujarat's Alang, the world's biggest shipyard, is ready to cater to projected increase in the number of ships for recycling. "Currently, India recycles around 300 of the 1,000 ships which are demolished per annum globally. However, countries like Japan, Europe and the US were not sending their ships for recycling to India in the absence of ratification of a global convention. That scenario is set to change with the Recycling of Ships Act, 2019", he said.

 

 

The Act ratifies the Hong Kong convention and facilitating environment friendly recycling process of ships and adequate safety of the yard workers. "The US and other countries do not send their ships to India for recycling but now that we have ratified the Hong Kong conventions, we expect the numbers to swell," the minister said.

 

"India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan account for recycling about 90 per cent of the global ships. India's share at present stands at 30 per cent or 70 lakh gross tonnage of ships per annum which is bound to go to at least 60 per cent given 95 of the 131 plots at Alang are developing these as per Hong Kong conventions, paving way for ships from Europe, Japan, US and other countries to be recycled here," he noted.

 

Further, the minister said there are 53,000 merchant ships globally and out of them, 1,000 are recycled annually. Once more ships will start coming to India for demolition, the ship recycling's contribution to the GDP will grow to USD 2.2 billion from present USD 1.3 billion. Terming the Act as a hallmark moment in the Indian maritime history, Mandaviya said it is part of ongoing major reforms and Prime Minister Narendra Modi government's commitment towards making India a USD 5 trillion economy.

 

Further, the official said the government is taking measures to improve operational efficiency of ports and under the National Perspective Plan for Sagarmala, six new mega ports will be developed. This will be in addition to complete overhaul of the existing 12 and 200 non-major ports in the country through the length of its 7,500-kilometre coastline.

 

Cargo volume handled by the country's top 12 ports rose marginally to 463.07 million tonnes during the April-November 2019. India has 12 major ports, Deendayal, erstwhile Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Mormugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Kamarajar, V O Chidambaranar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata under the control of the Centre. These major ports handle about 60 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic.