Recyclers are cautious despite a recent influx of tonnage to West Coast Indian and Pakistani waterfronts over several weeks, according to GMS.
Losses “in various individual sectors along the entire dry bulk range across the recent past” left the overall benchmark index down about 5% of its value, a move GMS says helps explain the current flow of vessels.
“And despite recent deliveries of a wide collection of sizes and types of vessels (especially in Alang), the overall sentiment in the Indian sub-continent remains on watchful footing while trying to surf the wakes of Trump’s ongoing tariff conundrums, which continue to confuse and frustrate global trade markets through what was hoped to have been a positive outcome to the deal makers’ recent meeting with Putin raising the question, is there a method to this madness.”
GMS notes that slower summers of 2024 and even 2025 are a concern and that the industry miscalculated 2025’s recycling performance as compensation for 2024’s dearth of tonnage.
Much of the seriously over-aged tonnage that has been trading since post-covid has not come for recycling in 2025.
Several large LDT LNG carriers have been sold for recycling, and another arrived at Alang this week, yet “there has not been the level of market activity at the bidding tables of late.”
GMS adds that DASR-backed Gadani recyclers are re-entering negotiations and taking HKC upgrades seriously, while Bangladesh remains the lowest-placed market with only occasional interest in select larger LDT units as demand and pricing remain weak.
India has been active in non-ferrous units but is described as cagey amid tariff risks and potential sanctions that keep buyers on edge.