Shipbuilding industry in its death throes

Like every sector in the country, the country’s shipbuilding industry is going through a deep crisis. A few days ago, a report said that 50,000 people working in this sector, already mired in various problems, have lost jobs as the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war made the import of raw materials scarce and costly.
The ongoing dollar crisis as well as gas-electricity price hike in the country also hit the industry very hard. It has also been apprehended that the livelihood of another 50,000 people of the industry’s associated businesses is also uncertain.
The steel and oxygen factories that came into existence surrounding the shipbreaking industry have also received the hardest blow. Before, it was possible for the government to help certain sectors to overcome their crisis by injecting cash and kinds and other incentive packages, but now the government itself does not have money to run the country: forex reserves have almost dried up.
Like many other countries Bangladesh could have faced the fallout of the pandemic and the war successfully, if the present inept government was not there that, in order to continue in power, allowed corruption everywhere. But corruption in the banking and financial sector dealt the most fatal blow to its economy.
Now even if the government very positively wants to help the shipbreaking industry to tide over the crisis, it is not possible. Unsurprisingly, most shipbreaking yards have already closed down resulting in massive unemployment. Reportedly, around 80% of shipbreaking yards, steel and oxygen factories have been closed in the last three years.
The days of the industry had been already difficult however. According to the Bangladesh Ship Breakers Association (BSBA), from 2012 to 2019, 80 of the 160 shipyards located at Sitakunda were closed. Added to this are another 40 more shipbreaking yards that stopped production during the post-Covid-19 period as the price of raw materials went high.
There are only around 20 shipbreaking yards that are now active in Sitakunda. When this industry is going through this crisis its ripple effect has fallen to the steel sector shooting up the production cost of rods. Also, this has seriously hampered oxygen production.
It is ironic that when newly unemployed people and their families are going hungry, the government is telling the opposition that it is jealous of the country’s ongoing development.