India’s Ship breaking Industry and Recent Draft Law

Ship breaking or Ship recycling is a process of breaking of ships after the end of their life cycle. Ship breaking allows the materials from ship, primarily steel, to be recycled and lower the demand of Iron ore. This is considered to be one of the most hazardous industries and too much labour intensive.

Location of the Ship Breaking Industry around the world

The global ship breaking industry is largely concentrated in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) and China. These four countries account for highest market share of the ship breaking industry. Among developed countries, ship breaking is primarily concentrated in United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, Turkey etc. Currently, India and Bangladesh are the key players in ship breaking industry. Alang (Gujarat) stands as the largest in the world with a capacity of 450 ships a year. The major ship breaking centres around the world are as follows:

• Bangladesh – Chittagong Ship Breaking yard
• China – Changjiang Ship Breaking yard
• India – Alang-Sosiya Ship Breaking Yard
• Pakistan – Gadani Ship Breaking yard
• Turkey – Aliaga Ship Breaking Yard
• United States – Esco Marine, Brownsville, Texas
• International Shipbreaking, Brownsville, Texas
• United Kingdom – Able UK, Graythorpe Dock, Teesside
• Belgium – Galloo, Ghent

In recent years, the Shipbreaking has taken a hit because of the slump in steel prices, and with it of recycled steel as well.

Ship Breaking Industry in India

In 1960s, Ship breaking industry in India was confined to dismantling of the small barges and coastal wrecks. By 1979, it became a full-fldged industry in the country after Government of India recognized this activity as a small-scale industry. Currenty, the key centres of ship breaking industry in India are as follows:

• Alang-Sosiya and Sachana (Gujarat)
• Tadri and Maipe (Karnataka)
• Baypore, Cochin, and Azhical (Kerala)
• Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh)
• Valinokan and Tuticorin (Tamil Nadu)

The primary ship breaking centres of India are located on the west coast. The Indian Ship-breaking industry generates resources such as re-rolling scrap, melting scrap, cast Iron scrap, non-ferrous metals, machinery, and wooden articles. The industry is so hazardous that – it is said that one worker dies in Alang every day.

Concerns Around Ship Breaking Industry

Ship-breaking activity produces about 2 million tonnes of re-rollable steel per annum. The industry also provides employment to about 40,000 people in direct and ancillary businesses. However, the industry also generates solid and hazardous waste such as paint chips; ceramic tiles; glass wool and fibrous insulation material; oil sludge and waste oil; asbestos sheets; ropes; insulation; and styrofoam, plastics, fibre glass, linoleum, and laminates. These wastes are disposed off on the sea shore and are health and environmental hazards to terrestrial and marine environments. It is considered as one of the most hazadarous jobs in the world. The key issues around the industry are as follows:

Environmental Pollution

Dumping of toxic materials like asbestos, radiation causing toxic wastes, polyurethane and used furnace oil polluting the beaches. Ships in India and Bangladesh are dismantled on the beach rather than on dry docks, which adds to the toxicity of the soil, water and air. It harms the entire coastal ecosystem. It devastates dozens of aquatic species, destroying also the livelihoods of surrounding fishing communities. Another environmental hazard of the industry is beaching, which refers to crashing a ship into a beach at a very high speed allowing a ship to intrude into the beach just enough for dismantling.

Workers Safety

Unskilled workers are employed to manually break the ships which are full of toxic substances like lead, asbestos etc. Little or no heed is paid to the safety of workers. Hundreds of accidental deaths due to fire, suffocation are reported every year.

Exploitation of workers

There is blatant violation of labour standards. Workers are paid much less than the standard wages. In Bangladesh, children under 15 years of age count for 20% of the workforce who are underpaid.

Paucity of Health Facilities

Despite of thousands of workers deployed at a ship breaking site there is hardly any provision of doctors or clinics to meet any exigencies.

Laws around Ship Breaking

There are weak international laws around ship breaking industry. The main international laws include EU regulations and Hong Cong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships. The Hong Kong convention was adopted by International Maritime Organization in 2009. However, there are several issues with this convention:

• This convention is not in force because it has been ratified only by Norway, Congo, France, Belgium, Panama and Denmark and needs ratification by 15 more countries (so that total make more than 40% of world’s total merchant shipping capacity).
• It does not lay the responsibility of dismantling of ship on the owner.
• Further while beaching is banned under EU regulations, Hong Cong convention calls only for clean beaching practices. There are no provisions to punish companies who practice it.

India’s Policy and Proposed Law

In August 2014, the ship-breaking industry, so far under the Steel Ministry, was brought under control of the Shipping Ministry. This move was to attract more ships to Indian yards, including the world’s largest — Alang in Gujarat — and get marketed well at international shipping forums.  In furtherance to this, Government of India has now decided to ratify and implement the Hong Kong Convention. Towards that, the transport ministry has drafted legislation to make the ship recycling industry safe for its workers and the environment and to implement the Hong Kong Convention (HKC). This is a correct step because so far India’s beaching method to dismantle ships is generally criticized for its lax safety and health aspects. Further, India is also upgrading Alang-Sosiya through a $76-million soft loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The upgrades envisage concrete floors to prevent pollutants from entering the sub-soil and improvement of environmental facilities.