27 December 2010

Alang update: Ship-breakers end strike, to resume work

The four-day-long strike by ship-breakers at Alang, Asia's largest ship-breaking yard, ended on Friday evening after the representatives of ship-breakers met officials of central excise and other departments concerned to discus their problems. The work at Alang yard will resume on Saturday.

Ship-breakers had gone on strike to protest a notification issued by central excise, asking for a ship-wise break-up of material obtained from dismantled vessels. The notification was issued in July and ship-breakers were asked to periodically submit details of excisable and non-excisable items obtained from the ships they bring for scraping. Ship-breakers were told to maintain ship-to-ship stock register.

"The co-relation of consignment-wise input-output is not possible for any industry and is also not supported by law. Similarly, ship recyclers are in no position to maintain such co-relation as more than one ships are recycled at plots and to differentiate between scrap generated from different ships is not possible,'' said Nikhil Gupta, joint secretary of Alang-Sosiya Ship-Recycling Association (ASSRA).

"The government officials have assured us that the rule has been put on hold till it is re-examined by the government department concerned in a month. The officials have agreed to find out an amicable solution. So, the industry will resume its function from Saturday,'' Gupta said.

The ASSRA official said that the industry provides raw material to more than 500 ancillary units, like rolling mills, furnace plants and forging units all over the country. The government has incurred revenue losses up to Rs 10-12 crore a day. According to an estimation by the association, the stalemate at Alang resulted in the loss of production of 10,000 tonnes of steel a day.

Source: The Times of India, Dec 24, 2010,
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/rajkot/Ship-breakers-end-strike-to-resume-work/articleshow/7158736.cms

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