India’s steel expansion plans threatened by scrap metal export restrictions
scrap metal shipments from the European Union as it seeks to reduce industrial emissions may make it harder for India to grow its steel sector.
Countries are recycling more scrap domestically to reduce the use of pollutive feedstocks like iron ore in the steel-making process. For India, which is scrap deficient due to a relatively small consumer base, imports are key to its target of doubling steel production capacity to 300 million tons by the end of the decade.
Producers are following policy developments such as the EU’s update of its waste shipment rules, which came after China tightened scrap metal exports.
The bloc’s proposal recommends that waste is only sent to countries outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development group if they can meet strict environmental criteria.
“Every country is going to protect their scrap due to a circular economy being implemented at home,” Sanjay Mehta, president of the Material Recycling Association of India, said in an interview in Mumbai. “It’s going to be a very tough situation for us” as the EU’s new regulations will likely tighten supplies to India, he said.
India is the biggest destination for European scrap after Turkey, and it buys the rest from the US, Central and South America, Asia and the Middle East, according to the industry group.
The country’s consumption of ferrous scrap metal will jump 50% to 60 million tons by the end of the decade, and imports will double to about 20 million tons, it estimates.
The South Asian nation imported about $12 billion worth of metal scrap in 2022, more than double the amount from just five years earlier, according to trade ministry data. Almost half of the inflows were steel scrap, used as feedstock in electric
