Scrapping of ships highest since 1996

Scrapyards in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and elsewhere bought 1,014 ships with a combined carrying capacity of 31.5 million deadweight tonnes, said Clarkson Research. That’s double the 2008 tally and the most since 1996, it said.

Total demolitions will advance to 53.3 million tonnes this year, led by a more than fourfold increase in scrapping of oil tankers, Clarkson estimates. Single-hull oil carriers face trading restrictions this year under environmental rules from the IMO. The biggest component of demolition last year was commodity carriers, with 10 million tonnes of capacity removed, the Clarkson data show. Oil tankers accounted for 8.4 million tonnes and the remainder was split across different vessel types.

Indian scrappers bought the most vessels for demolition at 393 ships while Bangladeshi yards accounted for the biggest slice of carrying capacity, at 10.3 million tonnes.