Page 28 from: June / July 2013

28 June/July 2013

At the Metal Recycling Association of India’s international confer-

ence in Delhi, the organisation’s president Ikbal Nathani said that

‘India is on the path to be one of the largest recyclable material gen-

erators over the next decade’. But for this to take place, the country

would need to overcome the many challenges facing the Indian met-

als recycling industry today, such as the lack of domestic legislation

and of zones specially designated for metals recycling, as well as

obstacles that impact free trade of scrap.

The Metal Recycling Association of India (MRAI) staged its first-ever international
conference in late April, with Delhi as the

venue. The event, which covered various

aspects of the ferrous and non-ferrous recycling

trade, attracted more than 750 delegates from

India and around the world.

In his opening address, the MRAI’s president

Ikbal Nathani said that with growing GDP and

per-capita consumption, India is on the path to

be one of the largest recyclable material genera-

tors over the next decade. In order for this to

happen, however, the country would need to

surmount the many challenges facing its metals

recycling industry. He identified the following in

particular:

• The lack of domestic legislation applying to

the metals recycling industry, such as an end-

of-life vehicle regulation;

• The lack of central and state government

promotion of recycling and the multitude of

government departments involved;

M e t a l s i n i n d i a By Manfred Beck

Bumps in the
road for India’s
metals recyclers

• India has become the fourth largest producer
of crude steel in the world after having occu-
pied eighth position as recently as 2003, and it
is expected to become the world’s second larg-
est producer by 2015;

• India continues to maintain its position as the
world’s largest producer of direct reduced iron
(DRI) or sponge iron;

• India’s per-capita steel consumption climbed
from 38 kg in 2005/06 to 55 kg in 2010/11;

• Domestic crude steel production capacity was
expanded from 51.17 million tonnes in
2005/06 to 78 million tonnes in 2010/11;

• Domestic crude steel production increased at a
compound annual growth rate of 8% from
46.46 million tonnes in 2005/06 to 69.57 mil-
lion tonnes in 2010/11;

• In 2010/11, Indian exports of finished steel
reached 3.46 million tonnes while imports
totalled 6.79 million tonnes.

• The lack of any specially-designated zones/

areas for metals recycling;

• Obstacles to free trade of scrap erected from

time to time by the government and notably

the environment ministry, such as through

banning traders from importing scrap and the

classification of all scrap as ‘hazardous’ waste;

• Red tape and other bureaucratic hurdles;

• The non-uniform duty structure on imports of

the different grades of metal scrap, and special

additional duty (SAD) levies on imported scrap.

The Indian steel story

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