Gadani ship-breaking yard is the world's third largest

ship breaking Ship-breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for the extractio ...

yard located across a long beachfront at

Gadani Gadani ( ur, ) is a coastal town of Hub District located in the southern part of Balochistan along the Arabian Sea, Pakistan. and is just a 1-hour drive away from Karachi. The population of Gadani was estimated to be around 10,000 in 2005. Mo ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. The yard consists of 132 ship-breaking plots."Record 107 ships dismantled at Gaddani" by Parvaiz Ishfaq Rana, ''Dawn'', 29 June 2010 (http://archives.dawn.com/archives/business/2010-06-29.html) It is located about northwest of

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former c ...

, the largest city of

. In the 1980s, Gadani was the largest ship-breaking yard in the world, with more than 30,000 direct employees. However, competition from newer facilities in

Alang Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. Because it is home to the Alang Ship Breaking Yard, Alang beaches are considered the world's largest ship graveyard. Demographics As of the 2001 Indian census, ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

and

Chittagong Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...

resulted in a significant reduction in output, with Gadani today producing less than one fifth of the scrap it produced in the 1980s. The recent reduction in taxes on scrap metal has led to a modest resurgence of output at Gadani, which now employs around 6,000 workers. More than one million tons of steel is salvaged per year, and much of it is sold domestically. In the 2009-2010 fiscal year, a record 107 ships, with a combined light displacement tonnage (LDT) of 852,022 tons, were broken at Gadani, whereas in the previous 2008-2009 fiscal year, 86 ships, with a combined LDT of 778,598 tons, were turned into scrap. It is the world's third-largest

yard after

Alang Ship Breaking Yard The Alang Ship Breaking Yard is claimed to be the world's largest ship breaking yard, responsible for dismantling a significant number of retired freight and cargo ships salvaged around the world. It is located on the Gulf of Khambhat in the town ...

(

) and

Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard is located in Faujdarhat, Sitakunda Upazila, Bangladesh along the Sitakunda coastal strip, north-west of Chittagong. Handling about a fifth of the world's total, it was the world's largest ship breaking yard, until ...

(

), and followed by Aliağa Ship Breaking Yard (

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

). Workers may earn as little as $12 a day, and are exposed to many dangers.

Capacity

Gadani currently has an annual capacity of breaking up to 125 ships of all sizes, including

supertankers An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined cru ...

, with a combined LDT of 1,000,000 tons. Although Gadani ranks as the world's third largest ship breaking yard after Alang and Chittagong in terms of volume, it is the world's leading ship breaking yard in terms of efficiency. At Gadani, a ship with 5,000 LDT is broken within 30 to 45 days, whereas in India and Bangladesh it takes, on average, more than six months to break a vessel of the same size.

History

Ship breaking Ship-breaking (also known as ship recycling, ship demolition, ship dismantling, or ship cracking) is a type of ship disposal involving the breaking up of ships for either a source of parts, which can be sold for re-use, or for the extractio ...

was conducted in Gadani on rare occasions before Pakistan became a sovereign country. The activity of ship breaking at Gadani greatly increased in the 1960s. In 1978, the city of Gadani was designated by the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=hakúmat-e pákistán) abbreviated as GoP, is a federal government established by the Constitution of Pakistan as a constituted governing authority of the four provinces, two autonomous territorie ...

as a port. It was described as the largest such yard in the world. However, increased competition from rival ship-breaking yards in

, and

, coupled with relatively high import duty for decommissioned vessels, led to a disastrous decline in Gadani's output. After producing an average of one million tonnes of scrap in the 1980s, by 2001 the yard produced less than 160,000 tonnes and for ten months had no new vessel arrivals. In 2001, the

reduced ship-breaking duties from 15% to 10% and offered further incentives if industry activity improved. The measures have been effective, with a modest increase in employment to a total of around 6,000 workers.

Disasters

2016 ''Aces'' fire

On 1 November 2016, at least 14 people were killed and 59 burned as a result of gas cylinder explosions on a ship being scrapped, the

floating production storage and offloading A floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) unit is a floating vessel used by the offshore oil and gas industry for the production and processing of hydrocarbons, and for the storage of oil. An FPSO vessel is designed to receive h ...

oil tanker ''Aces'' (, built 1982 as ''Mobil Flinders''), causing a huge fire. Reportedly more than 100 people were dismantling a tanker in the yard. Some 30 other workers were also reported missing. By November 2, 19 people were reported dead and the tanker was still on fire.

References

External links

* {{recycling