Japan’s NYK Line has sent its first large vessel to Bangladesh for recycling, The Business Standard reported on 5 March 2026. The special-purpose bulk carrier MV Sage Sagittarius, of over 20,000 tonnes, arrived that day at Arab Ship Breaking and Recycling Limited in Sitakunda, Chattogram, to be beached and dismantled.
The ship, which carried coal from Australia to Japan, has its own hopper crane and conveyor system. NYK’s earlier Bangladesh recycling was an approximately 8,000-tonne ship at PHP Ship Recycling Yard. The company says it only uses yards that fully implement the Hong Kong Convention, has enlisted five Bangladeshi yards, and will monitor the project around the clock until recycling is complete.
The yard holds Bureau Veritas certification and is awaiting final ClassNK certification. Its chairman, Nur Uddin Rubel, said it had invested over Tk70 crore in a compliant facility: “We want to prove ourselves as a world-class ship recycling facility.” NYK expects more than 10,000 ships to reach the end of their service lives in the next decade.
Source
- The Business Standard: “NYK Line sends first large vessel to Bangladesh shipbreaking yard” (5 March 2026)
File photo: a bulk carrier being recycled in Chattogram (not the Sage Sagittarius). Photo: Nayeemgms / CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
This article is a summary prepared by Maritime News BD from the report(s) listed above; it was not independently reported by Maritime News BD.
