India has emerged as the world’s leading ship recycling nation, achieving a crowning objective of its "Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030" five years ahead of schedule.
According to the latest flagship report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), India’s share of global ship recycling surged to a dominant 35.4 per cent, up from 30.1 per cent a year prior. The country’s total ship dismantling volume grew by nearly 60 per cent in a single year, climbing from 1.86 million Gross Tons (GT) to 2.99 million GT.
Reacting to the milestone, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal credited the turnaround to a stringent mix of policy overhauls and global safety alignments. "India's emergence as the world’s top ship recycling nation reflects the success of sustained policy reforms, industry efforts, and strict adherence to international environmental and safety standards," Sonowal said.
Policy architecture behind the boom
Industry experts point out that India's sudden climb to the number-one spot is rooted in aggressive, structural regulatory formalization rather than mere market luck. Key drivers include:
Following the enactment of the Recycling of Ships Act, 2019, India codified the global standards of the Hong Kong International Convention (HKC) into domestic law. Backed by a Rs 53.5 crore government modernisation package, 115 domestic ship recycling yards successfully achieved strict HKC environmental compliance, attracting major global liners who previously avoided South Asian yards due to safety concerns.
To stimulate domestic shipbuilders, the Ministry introduced an innovative scheme offering ship owners a credit note worth 40 per cent of the scrap value of their recycled vessel. This credit can be used to offset up to 5 per cent of the cost of building a brand-new vessel at any domestic Indian shipyard, seamlessly linking the recycling and shipbuilding sectors.
The backbone of this achievement remains the massive Alang-Sosiya ship-breaking cluster in Gujarat, widely recognized as the largest stretch of ship recycling beaches on Earth.
The Baltic and International Maritime Council (Bimco) projects that more than 16,000 vessels will require recycling worldwide over the next decade as global fleets undergo green transitions. Armed with its current 35.4 per cent market share, India is already on track to safely dismantle 500 to 600 global vessels annually.
Looking ahead, the government is not resting on its early 2030 victory. Under a comprehensive master plan drawn up by the Government of Gujarat, infrastructure expansions at Alang are actively underway to nearly double India's baseline capacity to 9 million Light Displacement Tons (LDT). Concurrently, New Delhi is in active diplomatic talks to include top-tier Indian yards in the European Union’s highly selective approved list of green ship recycling facilities, which would unlock exclusive, premium European shipping markets.
