As of 2023, there were 454 cruise ships of various types sailing around the world. With voyages that traverse the world's oceans, a cruise ship voyage can last from just two days to more than ten days, depending on its itinerary and package. Like all marine vessels, cruise ships are subjected to degradation caused by seawater, extreme weather, and the general wear and tear of it's operation. These factors, together with a determined lifespan, require cruise ships of a certain age to be retired and eventually
dismantled in shipbreaking yards, the largest of which is the Alang facility, located in Gujarat, India.
There are several reasons why a cruise ship is retired; foremost, it is a complex machine, and like other machinery, these vessels get run down with age, requiring costly maintenance. While its average usable life is up to 30 years, other considerations include technological obsolescence, which can be expensive to continue to operate, and even unforeseen events that cause substantial damage. It is important to note that not all retired cruise ships are scrapped, as some are sold to smaller cruise companies, where it is reused after being renovated and remarketed.
For ships that are slated for scrapping, these are normally sent to the Alang shipbreaking yard, a facility where ships have been dismantled, and its metals and other components have been sold since 1983. Its location in the Cambay gulf region has made it ideal for a shipbreaking facility owing to its climate, tidal conditions, and water depth due to the shoreline layout of its continental shelf. Spread across an area of 9.3 miles, there are currently 135 different shipbreaking yards which provide employment for 15,000 individuals and is responsible for 98% of the Indian ship recycling business.
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Where Old Ships Are Reborn As New Steel
The process for scrapping a ship at Alang is mostly a labor-intensive process, beginning with documenting and cataloguing the ship and its parts, including the powerful engines that power it. Next, the ship is cut up into smaller sections using acetylene cutting torches, mechanical and other tools, and the pieces are sorted per classification, ranging from metal, plastic, and glass. For the steel pieces, additional processes are employed before it is sent for material recovery. Depending on the size, a cruise ship can take between several weeks or months to be scrapped, which is roughly the same time frame as constructing a new one from scratch.
A majority of ship sections are made of steel, normally accounting for 75-85% of a ship's total tonnage, and the Alang shipyard can recycle 75% of the steel it reclaims from the scrapped ships. This steel is then reprocessed, turning it into finished steel products that include plates, bars, and others for use in various industries, including construction and shipbuilding. For materials that cannot be recycled, are toxic or have no value, the Alang shipyard has a facility that can process the dangerous substances, and allocated landfill areas.
Cruise ships are among the biggest ships in the world, and scrapping is a way of recovering some of the immense costs with building it. Scrapping a cruise ship can yield one to eight million dollars, while selling it as a used vessel can get as much as $162 million. While shipbreaking yards like Alang provide a valuable service to cruise line companies, its operations have been subject to concern due to its impact on human health and the environment, and much needs to be done to make its activities cleaner and safer.
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