Government Reviews Use of Ship Recycling Steel to Boost Domestic Steel Manufacturing

A joint meeting was held under the chairmanship of H D Kumaraswamy, Minister of Steel and Heavy Industries, and Sarbananda Sonowal, Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, to discuss and review the usage of steel obtained from ship recycling, with a focus on strengthening India’s position as the world’s leading ship recycling hub.

Who participated in the discussions?

The meeting brought together key stakeholders, including the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) and the Ship Recycling Industries Association (SRIA), to examine the existing regulatory framework and explore avenues for using secondary steel derived from ship recycling.

What was the focus of the discussions?

Discussions centred on expanding the application of recycled ship steel into additional sectors, with the aim of enhancing value generation from ship recycling and reinforcing India’s standing as the world’s leading ship recycling hub.

What does this mean for India’s circular economy push?

The meeting underscored the government’s commitment to promoting circular economy practices, supporting domestic steel manufacturing, and ensuring that India’s ship recycling industry continues to set global benchmarks in sustainability and efficiency.

Why does this matter for India’s steel and shipbreaking sectors?

India, led by the Alang-Sosiya ship recycling cluster in Gujarat, already accounts for a significant share of the world’s ship recycling activity, and steel recovered from decommissioned vessels forms an important secondary source of raw material for domestic steel manufacturing. Broadening the application of this recycled steel across more sectors could help strengthen the economic case for ship recycling in India while supporting the government’s wider circular economy and sustainability goals.

What does this signal for future policy direction?

The joint review between the steel and shipping ministries points to closer inter-ministerial coordination on integrating ship recycling more directly into India’s steel value chain, building on the country’s existing regulatory framework aligned with the Hong Kong International Convention and reinforcing its ambition to combine environmental compliance with greater economic value extraction from the ship recycling sector.