THE FINAL VOYAGE

Where the giants
come apart.

A ship’s working life ends. Its steel, equipment and story take different paths.

Ship recycling is concentrated in a handful of countries.

India, Bangladesh and Türkiye accounted for 80% of recycled ship tonnage in 2025, according to UNCTAD. The shares change over time, and are measured by gross tonnage. UNCTAD Data Hub ↗

Ships being dismantled along the Alang shoreline in Gujarat, India

Ship recycling at Alang in May 2023. The vessels pictured are not Seawise Giant.

Neilsatyam / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized and converted to WebP; responsive crop.

Seawise Giant’s last stop: Alang

Under the name Mont, Seawise Giant made its final voyage to India. It was dismantled at Alang in 2010, becoming the largest ship ever scrapped according to Guinness. Guinness World Records ↗

The vessel is gone, but its anchor survives in Hong Kong’s Maritime Museum Anchor Plaza. The museum’s account ↗

Read the ship’s complete profile →

Selected recycling centers

Explore Alang, Chattogram and Gadani. These examples are not a current ranking of recycling yards.

Historic and shipyard pins indicate approximate areas, not exact berths or navigable routes. Current-vessel pins, when available, show timestamped AIS reports. A missing report does not establish a vessel’s location.

Shipbreaking is more than cutting steel

Dismantling also means handling fuels, equipment and potentially hazardous materials, with consequences for workers and the surrounding coast. The IMO’s Hong Kong Convention addresses safe and environmentally sound ship recycling. IMO: ship recycling ↗

A map pin identifies an industrial area. It is not a certification of the practices at every facility there.

Follow a ship back to its beginning.

Explore where ships are built →

Reviewed 8 September 2026. Industry figures describe 2025 recycling. Photography shows Alang in 2023 and does not depict Seawise Giant.