Dhaka, Feb. 4 -- Bangladesh maintained its position as the world's top ship-breaking destination in 2024 despite a fall in imports of scrapped vessels compared to 2023.

The country imported 130 scrapped ships last year which was 23.53 per cent less than 170 ships imported in the preceding year 2023, according to data from the NGO Ship-breaking Platform (NSP) -- an NGO advocating for safe and ethical ship dismantling.

However, industry insiders claimed that imports of ship witnessed significant decline both in number and in tonnage due to letter-of-credit (L/C)-opening issues thanks to the US dollar crisis and other related ones.

They also noted that total tonnage of imported ships fell hinting at a shift towards smaller vessels.

"We a...