Shipbreaking activity in India has come to a halt in the last few days, as all the industrial oxygen, which fed gas torches, has been diverted to the COVID-19 fight.
Workers at Alang, India’s major shipbreaking yard, typically use an oxygen fuel torch for cutting ships, which is mixed with a variety of fuels such as propane, butane or natural gas. The liquefied oxygen acts as an oxidizer, while the fuel helps in cutting iron and steel parts easily.
However, all the oxygen now is used for medical purposes amid the pandemic, pausing an estimated 90% of shipbreaking activity in Alang, local media reported.
Not a single tonne of gas is coming to Alang. Everything has been diverted for medical use for the last couple of days. Ship-breaking at almost all the plots has stopped completely,
…Haresh Parmar, honorary joint secretary, Ship Recycling Industries Association (SRIA) told The Indian Express.
Shipbreakers at Alang told the same source that only a handful of shipbreakers, who have a couple of tonnes in reserve, are still operating.
This shutdown is expected to bring huge losses in the world’s largest ship graveyard, which recycles approximately half of all ships salvaged around the world.
