India tightens imports of scrap metal

Starting 1 April 2017 the Indian government has reduced the number of designated ports that will be able to handle scrap metal imports from 26 to 14. The 14 ports cover a wide swath of the country.

India’s Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under India’s Commerce Minister, said the import of metal scrap would take place only through the approved ports, without exceptions, even in the case of export-oriented units (EOUs) and special economic zones.

The 14 ports approved to receive shipments of unshredded metal scrap are Chennai, Cochin, Elmore, JNPT, Kandla, Mormugao, Mumbai, New Mangalore, Paradip, Tuticorin, Vishakhapatnam, Pipava, Mundra and Kolkata.  

The Inland Container Ports (ICDs) being removed from the accepted list include Loni, Ludhiana, Dadri, Nagpur, Jodhpur, Jaipur, Udaipur, Kanpur and Malanpur.

The DGFT says the 14 ports that will be allowed to handle unshredded metal scrap have until 31 March 2018 to install and have operational radiation portal monitors and container scanners. After that time, any port that does not have the equipment will be prohibited from taking in unshredded metal scrap.

In a circular released by the DGFT, the agency says that any of the sea ports that fail to meet the 2018 deadline to install the detection equipment would be “derecognized for the purpose of imports of unshredded metallic scrap.”