MRAI 2023: India eyes metal-intensive future

The Ministry of Steel of India has ambitious plans to nearly triple the amount of steel India makes by 2030 and also has asserted its goal to someday surpass China as the world’s largest producer of steel.

At the 2023 MRAI international Material Recycling Conference in Kochi, India, current Minister of Steel Shri. Jyotiraditya Scindia spelled out the growing role ferrous scrap will play in the drive toward increased output in a global economy where decarbonization techniques are increasingly valued.

“Today’s 15 percent of scrap usage, which will increase to almost 25 percent in the next five years, [and] with the Vision of 2047 [ministry plan], that means the percentage of scrap for production of steel should go up to 50 percent, and [the sector will be] only 50 percent be dependent on iron ore," Scindia said.

The minister told assembled MRAI delegates, “You are an industry that contributes to the today of India and it needs to be pushed in years to come.”

The same ministry has pushed for greater scrap collection and processing efforts within India. Efforts by the MRAI and others seem to have reinforced the notion that imports will nonetheless play a pivotal role even as India’s scrap generation increases.

“As being the world’s second-largest steel producer, India needs to become a responsible steel producer and therefore, we anticipate incremental usage of scrap in the coming years,” MRAI President Sanjay Mehta said at the event. “MRAI also urges the government to enhance the usage of secondary steel in government infrastructure projects, announce circular economy recycling parks and its appropriate policies for their implementation which will gain importance in 2023.” Such parks, as conceived by MRAI members who import scrap, would provide infrastructure and logistics support to the scrap importing and processing sector.

Panelists at an MRA session on nonferrous scrap reported the potential for similar gains in secondary aluminum output in India, though that sector at times suspects India’s primary aluminum industry as engaged in sabotage against scrap-fed metals producers.

Recognition of aluminum scrap imports has been noticed by India’s Ministry of Mines and its Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre (JNARDDC). Anupam Agrihotri of that organization said the figure of from 1.5 million to 1.6 million tons per year of aluminum scrap now imported by India represents a spike from levels of just 200,000 to 300,000 tons earlier this century.

“It’s a necessity to import aluminum and copper scrap,” Agrihotri said, telling MRAI delegates the JNARDDC is working on several research and “promotional” activities to support the recycled-content metals sector.

Dhaval Shah of Mumbai-based nonferrous scrap company Metco Ventures LLP, who also is an officer with MRAI, expressed hope that support efforts like those by the JNARDDC will become more widespread in India.

Shah said at least seven major, national Indian policies are designed to support the circular economy and sustainability, yet nonferrous recyclers too often see primary aluminum producers successful lobbying for policies that harm recycled-content producers. (The most recent one involves a proposed Bureau of Indian Standards, or BIS, specification for aluminum recyclers and producers.)

Shah said if India’s nonferrous sector is to play a larger role in the circular economy, its government must spike sabotage efforts such as the scrap-unfriendly BIS specification or the current import duty on nonferrous scrap. “There is a large gap between talking and action [if] you want us to follow the mantras that have been given to us,” he added.

If conditions for recyclers are discouraging and unprofitable, “this whole recycling and sustainable dream falls apart,” Shah said.

The 2023 MRAI International Material Recycling Conference was Feb. 3-4 at the Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty in Kochi, India.