[Aditya]

Like all machines, ships too become old and have to be retired from service. So what happens to a vessel after it has finished serving its employers?

Cars that are too old to run are taken to scrapyards, while aircraft are sent to sites called boneyards or graveyards. Similarly, ships go through a process called ship-breaking. In this process, ships are disposed of by breaking down for either a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or the extraction of raw materials, chiefly scrap. The steel from the ship can be recycled for use in the manufacture of new products which lowers the demand for mined iron ore and reduces energy use in the steelmaking process. Many other fittings can also be reused.

Ship breaking:


Image: Wikimedia

The Ship Breaking Industry in India initially took off in Kolkata and Mumbai. While many other ports subsequently began ship-breaking, they eventually declined. At present, the Alang Ship Breaking Yard in Gujarat is one of the largest ship-breaking yards in the world. It is claimed to scrap more than half the ships of the world.

Alang ship breaking yard:


Image: CruseMapper

Set up in 1982-83, the Alang Ship Breaking Yard is located in the Gulf of Khambhat in the state of Gujarat. It has the largest share of all in the global ship-breaking industry. It is claimed to consist of 183 ship-breaking yards spread along 14 km of coast and employs close to 40,000 people. All kinds of ships including oil-gas tankers, box ships (container carriers), bulk-cargo carriers, Ro-Ro (car ferries), passenger ships (ferries and cruise liners) and naval ships are brought here for breaking.

A ship being beached:


Decommissioned ships are towed and beached at the shore which resembles a yard. They are then dismantled by the labourers almost manually. The bow or the front portion of the vessel is dismantled first. This provides ventilation within the vessel for the dismantling of the remaining hazardous parts. The materials are then sold as scrap.



Image: DownToEarth

Ship breaking is a tedious process involving a lot of complex issues like ecology, labour health, and safety. It involves immense risk since the vessels generally carry explosive materials like oil and gas.

Ship breaking is done manually and is hazardous:










Images: GCaptain

If a ship is not broken, it might be used for other purposes. Naval ships may be converted into museums or used for research. They may also be sunk as artificial reefs or as targets during naval exercises.

INS Chapal (K94) Warship Museum, Karwar:












Images: Daijiworld

Sources: Wikipedia 1, 2, MHS India

[Omkar]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Nikhildrao]

I have heard of the extremely treacherous conditions in which these people have to work in , especially when there is tons of asbestos used in the construction of the ships. Many of these workers develop asbestosis that is misdiagnosed as occupation related COPD. Quite a grim situation with these ship graveyards.

[sandeepmdas]

Wonder what they'll do with electronics? If I am not wrong all ships come with lot of gadgetry viz. Radar, Sonar, radios, floodlights, whatever. I assume warships will be de-militarised before being send to scrapyard but the merchant navy vessels will not be.

Would love to own at least one or two marine-grade floodlights. Radar.

[skanchan95]

I often wonder why none of these ship-breaking companies try to salvage a few big pieces of "outer skin" of ships, especially warships and then sell it as memorabilia/tags to enthusiasts/collectors worldwide? Just imagine if such memorabilia was available for INS Viraat or INS Vikrant. People would have lined up for such memorabilia.

Many companies abroad salvage outer skins of retired aircraft (both military & civilian) and sell it as memorabilia worldwide. It becomes a valued collectible for collectors, especially if it has some history behind it. Some examples:

A tag made out of the outer skin of a downed Russian Air Force Su-34 in Ukraine


Tag made out of the skin of a retired ATR-72-500. PR-PDH at one point in time used to be VT-JCA with Jet Airways


Aircraft skins re-cut out of retired aircraft like this and converted into tags

[denzdm]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

I often wonder why none of these ship breaking companies try to salvage a few big pieces of "outer skin" of ships, especially warships and then sell it as memorabilia/tags to enthusiasts/collectors worldwide? Just imagine if such memorabilia was available for INS Viraat or INS Vikrant. People would have lined up for such memorabilia.

I recall Bajaj Auto used the scrapped metal of the INS Vikrant to make fuel tanks of a bike called Bajaj V15 that was launched in 2016. And of course the Bajaj V15 received a great response in terms of sale due to its connection with the legendary aircraft carrier. Finally it was discontinued in 2019.

[sandeepmdas]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

Many companies abroad salvage outer skins of retired aircraft(both military & civilian) and sell it as memorabilia worldwide.

A complete nose section of a 747-300 is available for sale now. The -300 features a steam gauge cockpit, means you're not staring at sheets and sheets of emotionless blank glass displays.

Posted here:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385451196473

[MotoBlip]

I visited Alang with my family some 10 years back, and it is indeed a very interesting place. You'd be surprised by the amount of material that comes out of these ships and is resold in the markets by countless vendors in and around Alang. Used sofas, tables, chairs, carpet fabric, cutlery items, mini-fridges, cold storage room units, VCRs, DVD players, washing machines, bedsheets, towels, metal/wooden doors, PLCs, HMI devices.......phew, you get the gist, everything under the ship* was sold there. Additionally, when these ships arrive for scrapping, the source country sends a ton of industrial and consumer goods to be sold along with everything else. I don't know if all this is still sold, but this was the case when I visited.

The place otherwise felt pretty monotonous to me, green of the vegetation was conspicuous by it's absence and a mild pungent smell in the rather dirty air made our visit a cursory one since my mother started to feel somewhat ill, I can only imagine the plight of the workers there .

[Jeroen]

India has this very large ship breaking industry, because they undercut all other yards on price. This is done by exploiting the workers.

I visited one of these yards in 2014 or 2015. So some years ago. I was absolutely appalled at the working conditions. No safety and or health protocol. Not so much as a hard hat! That is before you even start thinking about how these poor folks deal with all the toxic products on these ships. Asbestos has been named already.

Western shipping companies send their old ships to India. It would cost an absolute fortune to decommission some of these old ships in Europe. Because of all the Health and safety regulations. None of that in India.

Here is an interesting video on some of these practices.

https://youtu.be/dSL6HuqM0Yc

I appreciate these yards provide employment for tens of thousands of people. But the reality is of course, the shipping companies and the heard bosses are making a fortune out of this whilst tens of thousands of Indian, work in an extremely dangerous environment.

Not something to be proud of. Neither having the yards, allowing them to continue without at least some basic Health and Safety protection, and nothing to be proud of for these dodgy shipowners who don’t want to pay up for dismantling their ships properly and environmental friendly.

Maybe things have improved a bit since my visit. But my experience in India is that this sort of manual labour is considered cheap and expendable. Very sad,

Jeroen

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by denzdm

I recall Bajaj Auto used the scrapped metal of the INS Vikrant to make fuel tanks of a bike called Bajaj V15 that was launched in 2016. And of course the Bajaj V15 received a great response in terms of sale due to its connection with the legendary aircraft carrier. Finally it was discontinued in 2019.

Yes they did, but they used melted metal from the carrier to make the bikes. The carrier's metal lost its original texture and form and will again end up in some scrap yard a few years down the line.

In case of aviation tags, they retain the aircraft skin's originality - colour/ scratches/dents on the aircraft skin are left as it is. For e.g, as with most aviation tags, these tags from a retired DHL Boeing 757 retained their original colour & texture. They weren't enhanced or repainted. Only thing they do, after cutting it out to shape, is to stamp aircraft details on these tags.

[NomadSK]

I have been to this place almost 13 years ago and the stench was simply nauseating. It’s really a sad state of affair. Saw People working in deplorable conditions. No personal protection, no SOP’s, No Air ventilations, People dangling from the heights with gas torches in their hands and cutting the chemically contaminated steel. They looked like ants cannibalizing the ships. Toxic Chemicals being leached into the sea. It was a common news during those days that few people have perished while carrying out confined space jobs for cutting or cleaning. Heck, not even simple barricading. No one knew the hazards involved for handling such chemicals be it Asbestos, mercury, radioactive, H2S. Or even if someone knew, it wasn’t communicated to the people working.

It just felt like someone was making money on account of the health of these poor working people and exploiting them to their last breath.

During that time, came to know from a known person whose family business was involved indirectly with ship breaking, that EU doesn't allow (banned) to send the ships directly to indian ship breaking yards. So, the modus operandi is, they change the flag of the ship (at the end of their service life) to some other third country and then the final voyage of scrapping starts. Which benefits all and the malicious cycle keeps repeating.

Sadly, it’s a vicious money-making business where everyone makes money at the cost of environment and health of workers involved in this industry. I hope since then, things might have changed for the betterment of the workers directly involved.

I have heard that government is using the area now for their "Vehicle scrappage policy"

https://https://www.offthebeach.org/

PC : NGO shipbreaking Platform

[V.Narayan]

I have a slightly different perspective on this. It may not find favour with many. It is a little more nuanced than the ‘bad third world country with corrupt industry theme’. But first let me caveat that yes India’s ship breaking industry is woefully short on labour safety, labour protection and environment protection. The first two I believe , but do not have numbers to back me, can be addressed within a reasonable cost and still protect profits by better processes & systems. The environment matter is too vast in such an industry to be addressed by a corporation without financial support from the Govt. Managing the environment, removal, storage & safe disposal of chemicals is an infrastructure need the Govt should help with in return for the employment and taxes it gets in return. Not making excuses for the Alang yards and the terrible conditions the poor worker toil in.

Having said the above the problem is deeper than it seems. The third world is a willing accomplice in taking on the wastes of the first world in exchange for GDP value. Europe exported in 2020 32.7 million tonnes of solid waste to the third world in exchange for a fee. An arrangement that keeps Europe’s environment clean and helps the recipient third world economy. Chart below indicates where this solid waste goes.

Don’t mean to point fingers at Europe but I don’t have data for North America & Japan. This is not an exploitative arrangement but a mutual deal in which both are complicit. Europe is not willing to invest in waste disposal on site {cost, hassle, residual pollution, unrealistically framed laws} and the third world country is happy lending its land for dumping.

Similarly for this ship breaking business. The problem is exported in return for a fee. The ship owners to circumvent EU regulations, of cleaning up the vessel of toxic materials before breaking, change the flag of registration and send it to India & Bangladesh. Bingo their hands are clean & compliant. Cleaning up is now the ship breakers problem and the environmental damage has been shifted to that country. Then it is easy to say ‘Tch Tch’ and preach.

Meantime poor workers in desperate need for a job die and get maimed. The exporters, the first world, can say we are clean & compliant, the State Govt in India collects its taxes, the owners of the Alang yards can enjoy their profits and the worker can pray he doesn’t get maimed.

[urbanzameendar]

Originally Posted by sandeepmdas

Wonder what they'll do with electronics. If I am not wrong all ships come with lot of gadgetry viz. Radar, Sonar, radios, floodlights whatever. I assume warships will be de-militarized before being send to scrapyard but the merchant navy vassals will not be.

Would love to own at least one or two marine-grade floodlights. Radar...

Its a process called Customs Boarding where the custom officials board the ships at the anchorage in the high sea, they destroy the radars and satellite phones there itself. Only after this process is completed and the report been submitted, the ship is allowed to be beached.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by urbanzameendar

Its a process called Customs Boarding where the custom officials board the ships at the anchorage in the high sea, they destroy the radars and satellite phones there itself. Only after this process is completed and the report been submitted, the ship is allowed to be beached.

Why is Customs in charge of destroying radar and so on? Nothing specially about electronics on merchant ships. All regular commerciable available stuff. It’s not very expensive either. All the copper parts in the engine room, e.g. emotors are worth ten times more than old ships electronics?

Jeroen

[Moto_MP]

Originally Posted by urbanzameendar

Its a process called Customs Boarding where the custom officials board the ships at the anchorage in the high sea, they destroy the radars and satellite phones there itself. Only after this process is completed and the report been submitted, the ship is allowed to be beached.

Most of the useful stuff like Radars, spares for machineries, Valves etc find way to resellers and many a times they end up again being supplied to other ships in need of spares.

Many of these resellers have contacts with suppliers in europe/s'pore and so on.

When a ship is being scrapped it does not mean she will be carrying all the original equipment fitted onboard while commissioned, many a times electronics like radars, communication equipment and others are rather newer as compared to ships life, they end up where they are needed.

In many cases there are ships still in service with equipment onboard fitted and spares are no longer available from the original manufacturers, in this case the shipowner has option to either renew full system/equipment or use scavenged spares from these break yards.

Sometimes there is urgent need of spares onboard and lead times to get these spares from manufacturers is in months. I have experienced a situation where a urgently needed spare was not available anywhere in the world to be supplied immediately and but was available from Alang through a supplier sitting in Greece immediately.

My understanding is if you visit this break yard you can get directions or guidance from locals on where you can source all these equipment.