India: In the fiscal
period of 2011-12, Asia’s largest shipbreaking yard - at Alang in India -
recorded its highest-ever number of ships arriving for recycling, according to
the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB).
A total of 415 ships were dismantled
at the Alang facility, averaging 38.6 million tonnes of light ton displacement
(LDT) against 28.2 million tonnes LDT in 2010-11. In an official statement, the
GMB attributes these results partly to the ‘key infrastructure’ for toxic
storage and disposal facilities serving both hazardous and non-hazardous waste.
The board goes on to explain that
despite the struggling global economy during 2011-12, the non-major ports in
Gujarat saw traffic rise 12%, resulting in 259 million tonnes of shipbreaking
volume versus 231 million tonnes in 2010-11. At the same time, traffic handling
capacity increased roughly 14% from 284 million tonnes per annum to 323 million
tonnes.
But the facility’s full potential
has yet to be reached, believes GMB’s Vice Chairman and CEO Pankaj Kumar,
revealing expectations that by 2015-16 the Gujarat ports will be able to handle
over 500 million tonnes per year and quite possibly 1 billion tonnes by 2020.
Source: Recycling International. 13 April
2012
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