Bangladesh Becomes the World's Second Green Ship Recycling Hub

Bangladesh has 17 IMO-authorised ship recycling yards — second only to Turkey — and green-certified yards rose from 4 in 2024 to 25 after the Hong Kong Convention took force.

By the UISC BD Editorial Desk · United Information Service Center · Published 9 September 2026 · 7-minute read

When a merchant ship reaches the end of its life, someone has to take it apart. For decades a large share of that work has happened on the beaches of Sitakunda, north of Chattogram — and for just as long, the industry has been criticised internationally over its environmental and safety record.

That industry has just undergone the most significant regulatory change in its history, and the numbers are striking.

From Four Certified Yards to Twenty-Five

In 2024, only four Bangladeshi yards held green certification.

Following the entry into force of the Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships in June 2025, that number rose to 25 yards certified by classification societies including ClassNK, ClassIR and Bureau Veritas, according to the Bangladesh Ship Recycling Board.

An IMO document published on 15 January 2026 records 17 fully approved facilities in Bangladesh — all in the Sitakunda industrial belt — formally authorised by the Bangladesh Ship Recycling Board with validity to 29 October 2030.

That places Bangladesh second in the world, immediately behind Turkey's 18 approved facilities.

What Certification Actually Requires

The Hong Kong Convention is not a paperwork exercise. Yards must document hazardous materials aboard each vessel before dismantling begins, contain and dispose of asbestos, heavy metals, oils and other contaminants under controlled conditions, provide workers with protective equipment and training, and maintain impermeable working surfaces so contaminants do not enter soil and seawater.

Certified yards include PHP Ship Breaking & Recycling Industries, Kabir Steel, SN Corporation's three units, KR Ship Recycling Yard, Arab Ship Breaking & Recycling, HM Shipping Lines and others across the Sitakunda belt.

Why This Industry Matters to Bangladesh

Ship recycling supplies a large share of the country's steel. Vessels dismantled at Sitakunda are rolled into construction reinforcement bar that goes into buildings, bridges and infrastructure nationwide.

For a country with no significant iron ore deposits, recycled ship steel is effectively a domestic raw material source — and one that reduces both import dependence and the emissions associated with primary steel production. The industry also employs many thousands of workers and supports an extensive downstream re-rolling sector.

The Criticism That Has Not Gone Away

This publication would be doing readers a disservice to present certification as the end of the story.

Bangladeshi and international outlets have continued to report worker deaths in the sector, with The Business Standard asking directly how green the yards are "if workers keep dying," and other coverage characterising some certified operations as "green on paper" rather than in practice. Reporting by Mongabay has documented industry resistance to stricter environmental standards.

Those accounts and the certification data are both true, and the tension between them is the accurate picture: a real, documented regulatory transition is under way in an industry that remains genuinely dangerous, where certification of a yard does not automatically mean every practice within it has changed.

The Direction of Travel

What can be stated without qualification is the trajectory. An industry that had four certified yards two years ago now has 25, holds 17 IMO authorisations valid to 2030, and operates under an international convention with real compliance requirements.

Shipowners in Europe and Japan increasingly face legal and reputational obligations to send vessels only to compliant facilities. That commercial pressure — more than any domestic regulation — is what has driven the change, and it is not going to weaken.

Bangladesh's shipbuilding sector already exports vessels to European buyers. A country that both builds and responsibly recycles ships occupies a genuinely unusual position in the global maritime economy.

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• Saudi Arabia Is Putting Up to $1 Billion Into Bangladesh's Ports
• Africa's Free Trade Area Now Has 49 Ratifications and a Textile Value Chain
• Padma OS: Bangladesh Builds Its Own Bengali-First Linux

Sources

• "Bangladesh ranks second globally with 17 IMO-authorised ship recycling yards," Hellenic Shipping News — hellenicshippingnews.com
• "Two more Chattogram shipbreaking yards secure green certification," The Business Standard — tbsnews.net
• "How 'green' are Bangladesh's shipbreaking yards if workers keep dying?," The Business Standard — tbsnews.net
• "Bangladesh shipbreakers push back against stricter environmental standards," Mongabay — news.mongabay.com