'This has potentially made India the first non-OECD country to have shipyards listed by the EU,' an official said about the inclusion of the two Alang ship recycling yards under the European List of Ship Recycling Facilities.

'This has potentially made India the first non-OECD country to have shipyards listed by the EU,' an official said about the inclusion of the two Alang ship recycling yards under the European List of Ship Recycling Facilities.

'This has potentially made India the first non-OECD country to have shipyards listed by the EU,' an official said about the inclusion of the two Alang ship recycling yards under the European List of Ship Recycling Facilities.

The European Commission (EC) has added two Indian ship recycling yards to the European List of Ship Recycling Facilities, marking a historic milestone for a lesser-known aspect of India's maritime sector.

The two facilities added to the list are the Shree Ram Vessel Scrap Pvt Ltd/Shree Ram Shipping Industries Pvt Ltd (Plot no 78/81) and YSI Recyclers LLP (Plot No 59).

"This has potentially made India the first non-OECD country to have shipyards listed by the EU," explained Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce Darpan Jain, as per a PTI report.

This will finally allow ships carrying flags from the EU nations to be recycled at these yards, which join a list of 41 facilities, including 30 in the EU, 10 in Turkey, and one in the US.

These Alang yards, along with 27 others, had been part of India's push to get its ship recycling facilities included under the EUSRR framework. 

However, they had also faced pushback from organisations like the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, which has long been a vocal critic of a number of such facilities in South Asia.

The NGO had said that including these yards in the list "sets a chilling double standard and seriously undermines the EU’s own ship recycling sector", as per a Maritime Executive report.

They were referring to the beaching method of dismantling ships on mudflats—allegedly used by the Alang yards—which it said posed a serious risk to coastal ecosystems, workers, and supporting communities.

The cherry on the cake is India recently emerging as the world's top ship recycling nation in 2025, as per the latest data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The data showed a spike in the country's share in global ship recycling, jumping from 30.1 per cent in 2024 to 35.4 per cent in 2025. This reflects a jump from 1.86 million gross tonnes (GT) to 2.99 million GT over the same period.

The development of these yards—and their inclusion in the EU list—are part of India's goal to recycle about 16,000 ships over the next decade under its comprehensive maritime package of ₹69,725 crore for shipbuilding and ship recycling, approved by the Centre in September 2025.

Specifically, it is the ₹4,001 crore Shipbreaking Credit Note—under this package—that gives those scrapping their vessels at Indian yards a credit equivalent to 40 per cent of the scrap value.

TAGS