India now commands the top spot in global ship recycling — handling a claimed 35.4% of worldwide ship recycling volume in 2025 — and Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal used the milestone on Sunday, October 18, 2026, to frame it as proof that the country is actively steering the global maritime economy toward a sustainable future.

Alang at the centre of India's recycling dominance

The story behind the statistic runs through one address: Alang, Gujarat. For decades, this coastal town has housed the world's largest ship-breaking yard, a sprawling industrial kilometre-strip where end-of-life vessels from every ocean arrive to be dismantled. The scale is staggering — tens of thousands of workers, hundreds of plots, and a supply chain that feeds everything from structural steel to second-hand machinery into the domestic economy.

India's dominance here is not accidental. The combination of a large, specialised workforce, competitive operating costs, and enormous yard capacity has kept Alang ahead of rivals in Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Turkey for years. What has changed more recently is the policy architecture around it.

From Sagarmala to the Hong Kong Convention

The current government's maritime push traces back to 2015, when the Sagarmala Project was launched to modernise ports, promote coastal shipping, and build out shipbuilding and recycling infrastructure. That framework gave Alang-style operations a formal policy home — and a pipeline of investment.

Then, in 2019, India acceded to the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, signalling that the goal was not just volume but cleaner, safer recycling. The convention sets standards for hazardous material management, worker safety, and environmental controls — areas where large yards have been under international scrutiny. Sonowal's framing of a 'sustainable future' sits squarely in that context.

What the number means — and what still needs watching

A 35.4% global share makes India not just a participant in ship recycling but the market's defining player. For an industry that processes thousands of gross tonnes of steel annually, that translates into significant foreign exchange earnings, employment, and raw-material supply for domestic steel producers.

The next test is whether infrastructure upgrades at recycling yards keep pace with the Hong Kong Convention's requirements — and whether India can set new targets under the Maritime India Vision framework that lock in both the economic lead and the environmental compliance bar simultaneously. The rank is held. The harder work is holding it on the world's terms.