Asia’s largest shipbreaking town beached like never before

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First-hand report from the beaches of India’s shipbreaking facilities at Alang on the impact of the pandemic, courtesy of Vice. Operations at Alang came to a sudden halt when the government announced a national lockdown in March. However, India’s cash buyers of scrapped tonnage, such as GMS, have been in demand as a number of shipping sectors – such as car-carrying – sought to reduce capacity. The problem for Alang once the lockdown was lifted was a shortage of workers. “When Alang began to limp back to work, it found itself with several new ships to dismantle and a shortage of workforce. The lockdown in the rest of the world meant shipbreaking contractors at Alang procured the ships cheaper, particularly car-carriers. Alang opened up earlier than other shipbreaking sites and so shipowners decided to sell to companies in India instead of keeping them at port, as docking the ships costs money.”