1. Production of steel: the scrapping of ships provides the country’s main source of steel and in doing so saves substantial amount of money in foreign exchange by reducing the need to import steel materials. Bangladesh needs 8 million tons of building materials per year, of which iron is a major component. The iron from recycled ships supplies around 90% of iron materials in the country. This does mean however, that the owners have more power and control over the amount of steel that is sold and the price it is sold at.

2. In some ways it can be considered a “green industry”. Almost everything on the ship and the ship itself is recycled, reused and resold. The scrapping of ships supplies raw materials to steel mills, steel plate re-manufacturing, asbestos re-manufacturing as well as providing furniture, paint, electrical equipment and lubricants, oil to the number of businesses that have spouted up specifically as a result.

3. It generates large amounts of revenue for various Government authorities through the payment of taxes. Every year the Government collects almost 9000 million taka in revenue from the shipbreaking industry through import duty, yards tax and other taxes.

4. Employment. Despite the conditions that the workers are employed under, this is an industry that employs more than 30,000 people directly and 250, 000 more indirectly. It provides employment for some of the poorest people from the north of Bangladesh who would otherwise have no employment.

These mainly economic benefits have made shipbreaking a powerful industry. But these economic benefits should be considered together with the social and environmental costs. Together, with better regulation shipbreaking can also bring social and environmental benefits.