Ship recyclers' revenue slips as scrap-steel prices, orders plunge

China's ship-recycling industry is under mounting pressure from ongoing low steel prices and the increasing costs of adopting "greener" vessel-breaking methods, according to senior industry officials.

The latest figures show ship-recycling revenue dropped 15 percent to 3.4 billion yuan ($519 million) in China last year.

But labor and environmental protection costs soared, and the price of scrap plummeted - a double-whammy which Wu Jun, vice-president of the China National Ship-recycling Association, said is putting many firms under threat.