MRAI 2023: Drafted standard takes twisted turn

As characterized by nonferrous metals recycler and Material Recycling Association of India (MRAI) officer Dhawal Shah, the drafting of scrap specifications or standards in India played out very differently for steel compared with aluminum.

When India’s steel industry, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and MRAI worked jointly on a ferrous scrap specification, it “sailed through smoothly,” Shah said. The result was a BIS steel scrap document that will be adopted and was introduced at the 2023 MRAI International Material Recycling Conference.

A process with similar specification intentions was being conducted in parallel for the aluminum industry and its scrap feedstock. That process, Shah said, resulted in a drafted specification that treats scrap as if it is manufactured, not as the “generated product” it is.

Both Shah, who is with Mumbai-based Metco Ventures LLP, and Mohan Agarwal of India-based Century Metal Recycling (India’s largest consumer of aluminum scrap) indicated India’s primary aluminum producers likely influenced the drafting of the standard to favor its sector over the scrap-fed secondary aluminum sector.

“This seems to have a hidden agenda [to] further the interests of certain parties,” Agarwal said. The standard, as currently drafted, is “structured to impede the import of scrap into the country,” he added.

Retired Indian Navy Commodore Sujeet Samaddar also took the side of secondary producers, telling his fellow panelists and a BIS officer in attendance there are national security aspects tied to India’s ability to produce sufficient quantities of aluminum and other metals. “I cannot claim [to understand] what is the purpose of this standard,” Samaddar said of its current iteration. “It’s completely against the concept of ‘Make in India,’” he added, referring to a long-standing campaign of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Samaddar and his fellow panelists pointed to inspection requirements in the current document that, by his estimation, would mean some 2.5 tons of aluminum scrap per container in an estimated 30,000 shipments annually would be laboratory tested for chemistry content. “I do not understand how it can be done,” Samaddar said.

After hearing the input of panelists, Sandeep Vakharia of the Bombay Non-Ferrous Metals Association (BNFMA)—which is involved in the BIS drafting process—said it was clear to him, “We have to change our strategy.” He told MRAI delegates, “We are going to cover [your] concerns.”

Shah urged him to work within BNFMA circles not only to rewrite the proposed aluminum scrap standard but to champion two other causes as well: 1) creating a minimum recycled-content requirement for aluminum procured by government agencies; and 2) the lifting of a duty imposed on aluminum scrap imported into India.

Shah referred to India as “the only country” that places such a fee on imported scrap. Like the drafted BIS standard, that circumstance also has been tied to lobbying by India’s primary aluminum sector.

The 2023 MRAI International Material Recycling Conference was held in early February at the Grand Hyatt Kochi Bolgatty in Kochi, India.