According to India’s Ministry of Commerce, the country’s scrap imports during the first half of the current year amounted to 3.87 million mt, rising by 35 percent, reflecting the five percent increase in India’s crude steel production for the same period, both year on year. India has become second largest scrap importer in the world, from ranking third in 2018, after Turkey and South Korea.
Two major import sources for India in the given period were UAE and the UK, accounting for 711,544 mt and 530,103 mt of scrap imports respectively. Both countries increased their scrap shipments to India by 27 percent and 117 percent year on year, respectively. Meanwhile, in the first half this year, India’s scrap imports from the US decreased by seven percent year on year to 301,329 mt, as US prices were higher compared to other import sources.
JSW Steel’s chairman Sajjan Jindal commented on India becoming the world’s second largest scrap importer, tweeting, “This is a clear indication that our system is not geared up for consuming our internal scrap. Incentives for scrapping old vehicles can be one of the solutions. A firm policy on scrapping of old vehicles is the need of the hour. We must encourage people to scrap old vehicles, be it private or commercial. It is a fact that the old vehicles are not very environment friendly and are fuel guzzlers.”