Chittagong Ship Breaking Yard (Bengali:সীতাকুণ্ড জাহাজ ভাঙ্গা এলাকা,romanized: Sītākuṇḍa Jāhāja Bhāṅgā Ēlākā) is located inFaujdarhat,Sitakunda Upazila,Bangladesh along the 18 kilometres (11 mi)Sitakunda coastal strip, 20 kilometres (12 mi) north-west ofChittagong.[1] Handling about a fifth of the world's total shipbreaking, it was the world's largestship breaking yard[2] untilAlang Ship Breaking Yard in India took that spot.[3] It employs over 200,000Bangladeshis, making it one of the largest ship breaking yards. It accounts for around one-half of all the steel in Bangladesh.[2]
It is the world's second-largestship breaking yard, followed byGadani ship-breaking yard (Pakistan) andAliağa Ship Breaking Yard (Turkey).[4]
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In 1960, after a severe cyclone, the Greek shipM D Alpine was stranded on the shores ofSitakunda,Chittagong. It could not be re-floated and so remained there for several years. In 1965, Chittagong Steel House bought the ship and had it scrapped. It took years to scrap the vessel, but the work gave birth to the industry inBangladesh.
During theBangladesh Liberation War, aPakistani shipAl Abbas was damaged by bombing. Later on, the ship was salvaged by aSoviet team who were working atChittagong port at the time and the ship was brought to the Faujdarhat seashore. A local company,Karnafully Metal Works Ltd bought it as scrap in 1974 and introduced commercial ship breaking in the country.[5]
The industry grew steadily through the 1980s and by the middle of the 1990s, the country ranked number two in the world by tonnage scrapped. In 2008, there were 26 ship breaking yards in the area, and in 2009 there were 40.[6] From 2004 to 2008, the area was the largest ship-breaking yard in the world. However, by 2012 it had dropped from half to a fifth of worldwide ship-breaking.[2]
At one stage the industry was a tourist attraction, but outsiders are no longer welcome due to its poorsafety record;[7] a local watchdog group claims that one worker dies a week and one is injured a day on average.[8]
Workers have neitherprotective equipment nor financial security.[9] In 2014, shipping companyHapag-Lloyd followed an earlier decision byMaersk to stop using the yard for breaking its old ships on account of the yard's poor safety standards, despite the higher costs elsewhere.[10]
A scene of the movieAvengers: Age of Ultron was shot at the ship breaking yards of Chittagong.[11]
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| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Where Ships and Workers Go to Die onYouTube | |
| Ship Breakers onYouTube |
22°26′33″N91°43′55″E / 22.4424°N 91.7320°E /22.4424; 91.7320
