Tata Steel revs up recycling facility

New Delhi-based Tata Steel says it has commissioned its first ferrous scrap shredding and recycling plant, located in the city of Rohtak in the state of Haryana, India, in the northern part of that nation.

The company says the scrap yard includes “modern and mechanized equipment such as [a] shredder, baler, material handler, etc.” The facility has been set up in collaboration with Rohtak-based M/s Aarti Green Tech Ltd., as a “build, own, operate (BOO)” partner, according to Tata.

Tata also says it has launched two new brands of ferrous scrap known as Tata FerroBaled and Tata FerroShred tied to the sale of the baled and shredded ferrous scrap produced in Rohtak.

“As part of its commitment to a sustainable tomorrow, Tata Steel has commissioned its new 500,000 metric tons per year Steel Recycling Plant at Rohtak, Haryana,” states the firm.

Tata calls it “the first such facility in India” and says scrap procured to feed the processing equipment will include end-of-life vehicles ELVs, obsolete household items, construction and demolition scrap and industrially generated scrap. The firm says its FerroHaat app will be involved in scrap procurement.

“Steel produced through the recycled route entails lower carbon emissions, resource consumption and energy utilization,” states Tata, which on its website says it has 20 million metric tons of annual crude steel capacity in India.

“Steel can be recycled again and again without losing its properties,” states Yogesh Bedi, chief of Tata’s Steel Recycling Business. “Recycling scrap ensures the closure of the circular economy loop. The brand names will give a distinct identity to the processed scrap and ensure a standardized quality product for the customer and simultaneously raise the bar of the scrap Industry.”

Adds Bedi, “This initiative was the vision of our CEO and managing director T.V. Narendran, and we are excited to see its culmination.”

Regarding the ferrous scrap branding, the steelmaker says its Tata FerroBaled and Tata FerroShred brands will offer “high cleanliness, low contamination, high bulk density, lower tramp elements and no radioactivity” and shipments will be accompanied by test certificates, calling that “another first for the scrap industry.”

The company also says the scrap grades from Rohtak “promise to provide the much-needed raw material [boost] to the Indian steel industry by making available quality processed ferrous scrap and reducing the dependency on imports.”

Whether the Tata effort will boost ferrous scrap collection in India or merely redirect it away from smaller collection, dismantling and recycling firms remains to be seen.

India, though, is a considerable buyer of imported scrap, according to statistics from the United States Census Bureau. In the first five months of this year, the nation imported 284,000 metric tons of ferrous scrap from the U.S., ranking it seventh behind Turkey, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, Bangladesh and Egypt among overseas buyers (excluding Canada and Mexico).

Tata Steel describes itself as having annual crude steel capacity of 34 million metric tons and as “one of the world’s most geographically diversified steel producers.” In addition to steel mills in India, it has facilities in the Netherlands, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom.