History of Ship Breaking
The preferred choice of nearly All Ship Owners to the unavoidable issue of Ship Disposal.
Ship Demolition Involves the breaking up of ships, as BOTH a source of spare parts, which can be sold for re-use; or for the extraction of raw materials chiefly Scrap metal steel plate recycling.
Modern ships generally have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years before corrosion or metal fatigue set in, or a lack of parts render them uneconomical to run. Ship breaking allows the materials from the ship, especially steel, to be recycled and made into new products. This lowers the demand for mined Iron Ore, reduces energy use in the Steel Making process and keeps the price of Steel Plate more competitive. Equipment on board the vessel is usually sold for reuse.
In 2012, roughly 1,250 ocean ships were Sold for Demolition, with an average age of 26 years. In 2013, the world total of demolished ships amounted to 29,052,000 tonnes, 92% of which were demolished in Asia.
India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan are traditionally the preferred Buyers of Demolition Tonnage with the highest market share.
The global centres of ship breaking are ALANG in India and GADANI in Pakistan, these being the largest Ships Graveyard in the world, and the preferred destination of most Demolition Sellers due to the higher price paid for vessels on a delivered basis.
The main Sellers of ships Sold for Demolition are China, Greece and Germany respectively.
The ship breaking yards of India, Bangladesh, China and Pakistan employ 100,000 workers as well as providing a large amount of indirect jobs.
In India, the recycled steel covers at least 10% of the country's needs.