In 2025, India ranked first globally in the ship recycling sector. According to an official factsheet, India’s share of global ship recycling rose from 30.1 percent in 2024 to 35.4 percent in 2025.
The volume of ship recycling in India also increased from 1.86 million Gross Tonnage (GT) in 2024 to 2.99 million GT in 2025—an increase of approximately 60 percent.
According to the factsheet, the Alang-Sosia ship recycling cluster in Gujarat forms the backbone of India’s ship recycling capacity. It is considered the world’s largest ship recycling hub and accounts for nearly 98 percent of India’s total ship recycling activities.
The Alang-Sosia cluster has an annual recycling capacity of approximately 6 million GT. It produces around 3.50 million metric tonnes (MMT) of steel annually without depleting natural resources.
The region hosts authorized ship recycling yards, downstream steel re-rolling mills, and waste management infrastructure. Extensive modernization of the Alang-Sosia cluster over the past few years has established it as India’s primary hub in the global ship recycling market.
India now aims to nearly double its ship recycling capacity to approximately 9 million Light Displacement Tonnes (LDT). This expansion will be achieved through the planned development of the Alang ship recycling yard.
The Safety Training and Labour Welfare Institute at the Alang-Sosia ship recycling yard has trained over 150,000 workers to date. The training covers subjects such as occupational safety, handling hazardous materials, and emergency response. Apart from Gujarat, ship recycling yards in India are also located at Amar Iron Industries in Kolkata and Steel Industrials Kerala Limited (SILK) in Kerala.
According to an official statement, this increase in India’s ship recycling capacity reflects the growing competitiveness of Indian yards in the global market.
The government stated that India has achieved the goal of becoming the world’s leading ship recycling nation—set under the Maritime India Vision (MIV) 2030—five years ahead of schedule.
