PIB TrackerIndia now breaks up more ships than anyone else
India became the world's leading ship recycling nation in 2025, lifting its global share from 30.1 to 35.4 per cent and volume from 1.86 to 2.99 million gross tons — an industry rebuilt around the Hong Kong Convention.
What happened
- India became the world's leading ship recycling nation in 2025.
- Global market share rose from 30.1 per cent (2024) to 35.4 per cent (2025).
- Volume rose from 1.86 to 2.99 million gross tons — nearly 60 per cent growth.
- The Alang-Sosiya cluster in Gujarat remains the backbone of capacity.
- Alignment with the Hong Kong International Convention drove the regulatory transformation.
For Prelims
- The milestone: world's largest ship recycling nation in 2025; share 30.1% to 35.4%; volume 1.86 to 2.99 million GT.
- Alang-Sosiya: the ship recycling cluster in Bhavnagar district, Gujarat.
- Hong Kong Convention: the IMO's Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009.
- Indian law: the Recycling of Ships Act, 2019, under which India acceded to the Convention.
- Gross tonnage (GT): a measure of a ship's total internal volume — the standard unit for recycling statistics.
- Key document: the Inventory of Hazardous Materials, required for a ship to be recycled compliantly.
- Related instruments: the Basel Convention on transboundary movement of hazardous wastes.
- Rival yards: Chattogram (Bangladesh), Gadani (Pakistan) and Aliaga (Türkiye).
For UPSC: A strong circular-economy and maritime card. Use it for the Hong Kong Convention and the Recycling of Ships Act 2019, secondary steel and import substitution, occupational safety in hazardous industries, and the environmental justice critique of beaching.
What it is NOT: Market leadership is a volume statistic, not a certification of conditions — the Hong Kong Convention sets the framework, but compliance at yard level and worker safety outcomes are separate questions the backgrounder does not quantify.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.8 · GS3.14 · Linkage L2
Anchor
The end of a ship's life is where a maritime economy shows whether its standards are real.
Substantiation (data)
Share up from 30.1 to 35.4 per cent and volume from 1.86 to 2.99 million gross tons in a single year, with Alang-Sosiya carrying the capacity.
Exemplification
Recovered steel feeds re-rolling mills and reduces imported raw material, with recycled steel needing far less energy than primary production.
Problematisation
Beaching remains the dominant method, and the industry's history of occupational injury and hazardous exposure is not answered by market share.
Way-forward
Publish yard-level compliance and injury data, complete the transition to impermeable floors and containment, and certify yards against the Convention independently.
Position
A circular economy is only circular if the workers closing the loop are counted inside it.
Deploys into: Industrial policy + conservation (GS3.8, GS3.14) · the Hong Kong Convention and the Recycling of Ships Act 2019, secondary steel and import substitution, and occupational safety.
PIB Backgrounder · 2026-08-11 · PRID 2297515 · PIB source ↗