Green shoots visible again as more old ships beach at Alang

Summary: Ship recycling activities at Alang in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district have picked pace in the last three months. Experts, however, pointed out that business at Alang was far from normal, and said only 249 ships came to the yard during 2015-16 — an eight-year low. Such lows were seen only during the 2006-07 slowdown, when 136 ships visited Alang. Between January and March, a total of 120 old ships beached there — nearly 80 per cent more than the number of ships that visited the yard during the same period in 2015. Such ships were easily available in the international markets at affordable rates to shipbreakers,” said Haresh Parmar, honorary joint secretary of Ship Recycling Industries Association (SRIA), India.

Experts, however, pointed out that business at Alang was far from normal, and said only 249 ships came to the yard during 2015-16 — an eight-year low. Experts, however, pointed out that business at Alang was far from normal, and said only 249 ships came to the yard during 2015-16 — an eight-year low. Ship recycling activities at Alang in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district have picked pace in the last three months. Between January and March, a total of 120 old ships beached there — nearly 80 per cent more than the number of ships that visited the yard during the same period in 2015. “In the last three months of the previous financial year, we have seen a lot of activities.

The number of ships that visited Alang during this period is almost the total number of vessels beached here during the first three quarters of 2015-16,” said captain Sudhir Chadha, port officer at Alang, which has the world’s largest stretch of ship breaking beaches. Read | A graveyard goes silent Only 129 ships beached at Alang for recycling between April 2015 and December 2015, when the business witnessed one of the worst slumps. From January to March 2015, only 67 vessels had come to the yard. Read | Gujarat: Shipbreakers at Alang criticise new policy as charges shoot up to 35% Experts, however, pointed out that business at Alang was far from normal, and said only 249 ships came to the yard during 2015-16 — an eight-year low. Such lows were seen only during the 2006-07 slowdown, when 136 ships visited Alang. According to shipbreakers at Alang, “poor performance” of the Baltic Dry Index — which measures the rates paid to hire ships of different sizes to transport dry bulk commodities — could be the reason for the rise in influx of ships.

Source: Nyooz. 26 April 2016

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