India is one of the world’s top 5 ship recycling countries and holds 30% share in the global ship recycling market. Currently, India recycles 7 million gross tonnages of ships per annum. The ministry has facilitated more than 1,00,000 crew changes at Indian ports and through charter flights - the highest number of crew changes in the world.
In this regard, the Cochin Shipyard and Fincantieri of Italy have entered a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for co-operation in the areas of design, shipbuilding, ship repair and marine equipment manufacturing, besides training & skill development.
The Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister announced that India aspires to grab at least 50% of the global ship recycling business after the enactment of the legislation for recycling of ships.
Visakhapatnam Port Trust set a record by shipping 72.72 million tons of cargo during 2019-20. All the major ports recorded 704.82 million tons of cargo traffic in FY20 along with a turnaround time of 64.69 hours. Cargo traffic in the country is expected to rise to 2,500 million tons by 2024-25.