The Alang Ship Breaking Yard is the world's largest ship breaking yard, responsible for dismantling a significant number of retired freight and cargo ships salvaged from around the world. [1] [2] It is located on the Gulf of Khambhat by the town of Alang, in the district of Bhavnagar in the state of Gujarat, India. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
The name of Capt. N. Sundaresan will be remembered in the histories of ALANG, as the founder of Alang Ship Recycling Yard. Since its establishment in 1983, [10] the shipyard is believed to have acquired a total of US$110.6 billion in aggregate value, including total assets. Its growth has prompted its extension northeast towards Sosiya in Gujarat, and it is now often referred to as the Alang-Sosiya Yard. [11] [12]
The Alang facility consists of 183 ship breaking yards along 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) of coast that total 4.5 million Light Displacement Tonnage (LDT) of capacity. [13]
Large super-tankers, car ferries, container ships, and a dwindling number of ocean liners are beached on the mud flats during high tide. As the tide recedes, manual labourers move onto the beach to dismantle each ship, salvaging what they can and reducing the rest to scrap. [14]
The first ship broken down at Alang, MV Kota Tenjong, was beached on 13 February 1983. [15] Alang's processing volume peaked between 2011 and 2012 at 415 vessels per year, and has been declining since. In 2020, Alang Ship Breaking Yard recycled 196 ships. [16]
The governments of Japan and Gujarat signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2010, which focused on technology transfer and financial assistance from Japan to upgrade the yard's operations to meet international standards. [17] [18] The project aimed to make Alang the largest International Maritime Organization-compliant ship recycling yard in the world. This evolved as part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, an international industrial development project supported by the governments of India and Japan and carried out as a public-private partnership.[ citation needed ]
Improvement efforts started in 2017, with the Japanese International Cooperation Agency providing a soft loan of $76 million and the Gujarati Maritime Board providing $35 million toward improvements. [19]
In 2004, Regal V, famous for a deadly fire in 1990 when she was known as Scandinavian Star , was broken up at Alang.
On 31 December 2005, the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau left Toulon to be dismantled in Alang, despite protests about improper disposal and mismanagement of toxic waste at the facility. [20] In January 2006, the Supreme Court of India temporarily prohibited the Clemenceau from entering the port. [21] Attempts to reach a settlement were unsuccessful, and Clemenceau was sent to a ship-breaking harbour in Britain instead. On 15 January, a court ruling by France's Conseil d'État ordered Clemenceau to return to French waters. [22] Shortly after, Able UK, based at the Graythorp yard near Hartlepool, received a disassembly contract to use accepted practices in scrapping the ship. [23] [24] Disassembly began on 18 November 2009 and was completed by the end of 2010. [24]
In December 2009, the longest ship ever built, Seawise Giant , was broken up at Alang. [3]
In August 2012, Oriental Nicety , famous for an oil spill in Prince William sound when she was known as Exxon Valdez , was scrapped at Alang. [25]
The salvage yards at Alang have generated controversies about numerous environmental, health, and safety issues, including working conditions, workers' living conditions, and environmental impact. The recycling activities pollute the beach and surrounding areas, including the water, with heavy metals. [26] Additionally, in the past, the nearest full-service hospital was 50 km (31 miles) away in Bhavnagar. In March 2019, the Alang Hospital, a multi-speciality hospital at Alang, was inaugurated by Vijay Rupani, the Chief Minister of Gujarat. This hospital was set up by the Gujarat Maritime Board, is operated by the Indian Red Cross Society, and is able to provide immediate medical services. [27] [28]
Other large facilities on the scale of Alang Ship Breaking Yard include the Aliaga Ship Breaking Yard (Turkey), Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard (Bangladesh) and Gadani ship-breaking yard (Pakistan). [6] [29] In the 1980s, Gadani was the largest ship breaking yard; however, competition from newly established yards such as Alang resulted in a significant reduction in output, with Gadani today[ when? ] producing less than one-fifth of the scrap it produced in the 1980s. [30] [31]
2004: Shipbreakers is a documentary on the industry in Alang by Michael Kot. [32]
2005: On the Road to Alang, [33] by Peter Knego of Maritime Matters, is a documentary on passenger ships scrapped at Alang. [34]
TTSeawise Giant—earlier Oppama; later Happy Giant, Jahre Viking, Knock Nevis, and Mont—was a ULCC supertanker and the longest self-propelled ship in history, built in 1974–1979 by Sumitomo Heavy Industries in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan. The ship possessed the greatest deadweight tonnage ever recorded. Fully laden, with a displacement was 657,019 tonnes.
Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because it is home to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang beaches are considered the world's largest ship graveyard.The name of Capt. N. Sundaresan will be remembered in the histories of ALANG, as the founder of Alang Ship Recycling Yard.
Ship breaking is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships either as a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for the extraction of raw materials, chiefly scrap. Modern ships have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years before corrosion, metal fatigue and a lack of parts render them uneconomical to operate. Ship-breaking allows the materials from the ship, especially steel, to be recycled and made into new products. This lowers the demand for mined iron ore and reduces energy use in the steelmaking process. Fixtures and other equipment on board the vessels can also be reused. While ship-breaking is sustainable, there are concerns about its use by poorer countries without stringent environmental legislation. It is also labour-intensive, and considered one of the world's most dangerous industries.
Clemenceau was the French Navy's sixth aircraft carrier and the lead ship of her class. The carrier served from 1961 to 1997 and was dismantled and recycled in 2009. The carrier was the second French warship to be named after Georges Clemenceau, the first being a Richelieu-class battleship laid down in 1939 but never finished.
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Environmental harmful product dumping is the practice of transfrontier shipment of waste from one country to another. The goal is to take the waste to a country that has less strict environmental laws, or environmental laws that are not strictly enforced. The economic benefit of this practice is cheap disposal or recycling of waste without the economic regulations of the original country.
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Gadani ship-breaking yard is the world's third largest ship breaking yard located across a 10 km (6.2 mi) long beachfront at Gadani, Pakistan. The yard consists of 132 ship-breaking plots. It is located about 40 km (25 mi) northwest of Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan.
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A ship graveyard, ship cemetery or breaking yard is a location where the hulls of scrapped ships are left to decay and disintegrate, or left in reserve. Such a practice is now less common due to waste regulations and so some dry docks where ships are broken are also known as ship graveyards.
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The dismantling of the former Clemenceau is a positive and pioneering operation in Europe