Monday, January 19, 2009
No recession here; Alang ship yard flourishes
Monday, 19 January 2009
The global slump in the shipping industry is turning out to be boon for the ship breaking industry in Alang, where around 60 vessels have arrived for scrapping from December 1 to January 15. According to people associated with the industry, around 100 ships have landed in Alang for dismantling in the last two months and the trend will continue because of global recession. "Alang is all set to set a new record in scrapping largest number of ships in 2009 as more than 600 ships are available for dismantling in the international market due to slowdown in the global trades," said Vishnu Gupta, President of Alang Ship Breakers' Association.
He added that ship breaking industry will provide cheapest steel to the industry.
As a result, around 80 plots have become operational at Alang's ship breaking yard where three months back, the industry was finding it difficult to survive and only 30-35 plots were being used.
As per the data provided by Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) on arrival of ships, in last 45 days, 57 ships have got beached at Alang yard and 15 have more than 10,000 tonne capacity, while two ships are of more than 20,000 tonne.
Most of other vessels have tonnage capacity of more than 5,000 tonne.
Arrival of large number of ships at Alang also means increasing revenue of GMB, which charges Rs 100 per LTD (light displacement tonnage) per ship.
"Presently, we are getting various types of vessels like general cargo carrier, bulk cargo carrier, oil and gas tanks and chemical tanks," said Bhavnagar-based international ship agent Mehul Mehta.
He added that international shipping companies and ship owners are retiring the ships for dismantling because exports have gone down worldwide and there is not enough cargo to transport.
"Since there is unavailability of cargo, vessels remain idel, which nobody can afford considering vergy high costs of maintenance of vessel, crew and other costs," he said, explaining why there is increasing availability of vessels for dismantling.
According to him, vessels are sold between 250 to 300 USD per tonne while local scrap market rates are around Rs 18000 per tonne.
Arrival of increasing number of ships at Alang is also having a positive impact on the ancilliary units like oxygen refilling plants and steel re-rolling mills in and around Bhavnagar.
"Presently, 25 oxygen refilling units are operating and 15 new units are in the pipeline and would become operational very soon," said a leading ship breaker Hareshsinh Parmar.
He added that steel re-rolling mills, which were closed earlier, have started functioning again because of supply of raw material, which is steel plates.
Moreover, he added that apart from catering to the local market, steel plats and raw materials from Alang are going to Punjab, UP, Haryana and J&K where ingot-based mills use scrap material from Alang because its very cheap.
Source: PTI
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