The Weird Story Behind Alang ship breaking Tour for purchasing workshop Machinery.

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 from around the world. Alang has become a major worldwide center for shipbreaking and is considered the largest ship recycling yard in the world. To know more about the history of ship recycling, we have to travel back to the inception point. The ships have always been valuable and even after being recycled when they are not seaworthy. World War II left a huge amount of steel locked up in warships and cargo ships. These ships when scrapped yielded in million tonnes of high quality steel. After the war was over ship scrapping continued and the Ship Building Industry shifted eastwards in the 1970s, and so did the scrapping industry. Taiwan was the principal destination until an explosion and fire on board near a residential area killed and injured many lives. Due to a huge public outcry, the ship scrapping industry moved overnight. Exactly in the same period, Alang, which is located on the Coast of Gulf of Cambay, on the West Coast of India, experienced its first major growth spurt in scrapping. Geographical Features: • High inter-tidal gradient and flat surface enable the ship to the beach right at the shore during high tide and when the tide recedes the ship stands almost at a dry-dock. • Since the beach consists of stones and hard clay, the heavy items do not sink in the mud. • As Alang is sheltered from high-velocity winds or excessively humid conditions, ship recycling is a perennial activity. • Larger ships can come straight into the shore. • This reduces the total working time on each ship. • There is a layer of hard rock just beneath the sand, thus the danger of subsoil decontamination is ruled out. • One of the largest tidal ranges of over 11mtrs can take vessels of any draft. #oldmachine #alang #lathe