Domestic scrap generation in India has started scaling up, but it might take two to three years to yield large-scale supply. Imports are therefore expected to rise further, to satisfy scrap demand. So said participants at the MRAI International Indian Material Recycling Conference in Delhi on Friday.

Now is the right time for the government to think about developing port infrastructure to handle bulk scrap vessels across all industrial regions, to ease supply constraints faced by the industry, MTC director Sanjay Mehta said during a panel discussion at the event attended by Kallanish. Bulk shipment is the only solution to fulfil rising scrap demand in India, he added.

According to Mehta, Indian demand for scrap cannot wait for domestic scrap generation to develop. Demand is growing in all industries – from steel, to casting and foundries. The nation is among the largest foundry and casting producers and it requires a large quantity of good quality scrap.

“Bangladesh has emerged as one of the largest scrap importers in the world, mainly because they started importing bulk vessels for scrap,” Mehta said. “India, however, still imports in containerised vessels. Apart from Chennai and Mundra, we don’t have facilities to import in bulk.”

Due to the lack of facilities, the industry has to incur a huge cost in intra-port logistics, which could easily be reduced by port modernisation, the director added.

Steel Users Federation of India (SUFI) director Nikunj Turakhia advocated creating an ecosystem for domestic scrap generation. He advised introducing reverse logistics for scrap collection. “We have e-platforms to order any new commodities; likewise, we should also come up with a system where the scrap can be collected from each household,” Turakhia said.

Collection centres and scrapping zones should collect scrap in an organised way and transfer it for processing and sorting to generate quality scrap, he added.

Jindal Steel and Power (JSPL) managing director VR Sharma meanwhile said 100 million tonnes/year of Indian crude steel will be produced using scrap by 2030, thereby significantly reducing carbon emissions and coking coal dependency.

“Scrap is scrap till collection and processing. After processing, it becomes the purest form of raw material for steelmaking,” Sharma concluded.