How ships find a second life in Sitakunda

Every year, hundreds of commercial ships reach the end of their working lives and are sent for dismantling. In 2025, 321 vessels were dismantled worldwide, according to the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.

Of the vessels, around 85 percent ended up in South Asia, making the region the world’s dominant ship-recycling hub. Bangladesh alone accounted for around 35-40 percent of the vessels dismantled in the region.

Behind those numbers is a final journey. A vessel that once carried cargo across oceans, bound for the coast of Bangladesh, where its working life comes to an end.

So how does a ship make that final journey to Sitakunda? What happens after it runs aground? How is an ocean-going vessel reduced, piece by piece, to steel, machinery and other reusable materials?

WHY ARE SHIPS SENT FOR SCRAPPING?

Vessels are usually sent for scrap not because they can no longer sail, but because keeping them in service is no longer financially viable.

A ship may require costly repairs, fail a safety survey or become too expensive to keep certified under newer safety and environmental standards. Weak freight markets can also make continued operation uneconomical.

Once an owner decides to scrap a vessel, it is typically sold through a broker and sent to the world’s major ship-recycling destinations, including Chattogram.

There is no fixed age at which a ship must be scrapped. The decision depends largely on market conditions. Older vessels are more likely to be dismantled, but some ships are sent for recycling much earlier, while others remain in service for 30 to 45 years.

When freight markets weaken, owners tend to scrap vessels earlier. During one recent period, the average age of ships sent for demolition fell to 23.4 years from 29.6 years.

Container ships as young as seven years have also occasionally been scrapped when market conditions were particularly poor. In stronger markets, owners may continue operating vessels for more than 30 years.

In other words, a ship’s age matters, but its economic value matters more.

WHY SITAKUNDA?

Unlike conventional shipyards, shipbreaking yards do not require expensive dry docks.

Sitakunda’s coastline provides the conditions that enable beaching – a broad, muddy and gently sloping shoreline, strong tides and relatively low-cost labour.

At high tide, a ship can be driven towards the shore under its own power and deliberately run aground. As the tide recedes, the vessel settles onto the mud, allowing workers and machinery to begin dismantling it.

However, geography is only part of the reason the industry has flourished in Sitakunda. Bangladesh also has a huge demand for steel.

A significant portion of the steel recovered from old ships is sent to re-rolling mills, where it is processed into construction materials.

In effect, some of the steel used in Bangladesh’s rapidly growing buildings begins a second life as part of a ship that once sailed across the world’s oceans.

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER A SHIP REACHES THE YARD?

Ship dismantling is not simply a matter of cutting up a vessel. It is a carefully sequenced process that begins with removing fluids and hazardous materials before the vessel itself is taken apart.

First, fuel oil, sludge, engine oil and other liquids are removed. Hazardous materials are then identified and, in yards operating according to current standards, removed or handled separately. These may include asbestos, PCB-containing cables and refrigerants.

The vessel is then stripped of equipment and other items with resale value. Furniture, wiring, navigation equipment, generators and machinery are removed and often enter the second-hand market that has developed around the recycling industry.

Only then does the cutting begin.

Workers use oxy-acetylene torches to cut through the ship’s superstructure, decks and hull plates. Sections of the vessel are gradually separated and brought towards the shore, sometimes with the help of winches and sometimes by the movement of the tide.

Piece by piece, a vessel that once carried cargo across oceans is reduced to steel plates, machinery and other reusable materials.

Much of the recovered steel is sent to re-rolling mills, where it is processed and reshaped before returning to the economy as construction steel. Steel that once formed the hull of an ocean-going vessel can eventually become part of a building.

The transformation gives the ship’s materials a second life, but the process of creating that second life comes with significant risks.

WHAT ARE THE RISKS FOR WORKERS?

Shipbreaking is one of the most hazardous occupations in Bangladesh.

Workers operate on unstable, partially dismantled vessels and face risks including falls, fires, explosions and exposure to toxic substances. Residual gas trapped in tanks can cause deadly explosions if vessels are not properly cleared, while burning paint and old insulation can release harmful fumes.

The dangers remain immediate.

On August 14, nine workers and employees died after inhaling toxic gas inside a scrap vessel at a shipbreaking yard in Sitakunda.

The deaths came more than a year after Bangladesh ratified the Hong Kong Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships in 2023. The convention became legally mandatory in Bangladesh in mid-2025, setting international standards for safer and more environmentally responsible ship recycling.

Some yards have since made significant improvements, including installing concrete working surfaces instead of relying on bare mud, improving the containment of hazardous materials and providing better safety equipment.

But the risks have not disappeared.

Data compiled by the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies (BILS) show that 84 accidents occurred at shipbreaking yards between June 26, 2025 and August 14, 2026, leaving 15 workers dead and 81 injured.

Workers have also died at yards holding certification under international safety standards, raising questions about how effectively those standards are enforced in practice.

The figures highlight the industry's central challenge: having rules and certifications is not the same as ensuring that those standards are followed every day, at every yard.

WHY DOES SHIPBREAKING MATTER?

Shipbreaking sits at the intersection of two competing realities.

On one side is an industry that provides jobs and supplies a significant source of raw materials for Bangladesh’s construction sector. Without recycled ship steel, the country would have to rely more heavily on other sources of steel and raw materials.

On the other is a hazardous industry where workers can pay the price when safety standards are ignored or poorly enforced.

That tension makes shipbreaking more than a story about how an old vessel is cut apart.

A ship that once crossed oceans eventually comes ashore at Sitakunda. Its fuel is removed, its machinery salvaged, its hull cut into pieces, and its steel sent back into the economy.

The ocean gives the ship its first life. The shipbreaking industry gives its materials another.

The question is whether that second life can be built without costing workers theirs.