World Scrap Congress: India and Taiwan Seek Supply

In the ferrous scrap sector, India is developing a growing presence as an export destination and has helped provide stability to scrap markets. Speakers at the 2010 World Scrap Congress provided insight into India’s growing market, as well as a steady market in Taiwan.

Arti Lunaya of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), New Delhi, noted that “India is the fourth largest scrap importer after Turkey, China and South Korea.”

The nation may be poised to move farther up that list. “Indian consumption of ferrous scrap is set to increase from its current level of 15 million tons to 22 million tons in 2015,” said Lunaya.

India has reached its current level of more than 15 million tons consumed through steady annual growth. The nation consumed 11.8 million tons in 2007, 12.9 million tons in 2008 and 13.9 million tons in 2009 before reaching the 15.5 million mark at the present time.

Lunaya estimated that in India, EAF steelmaking has a 24 percent market share. The nation’s scrap consumption could be even greater except that it also has access to affordable pig iron and direct-reduced iron (DRI).

For steelmaking overall, Lunaya and SAIL see Indian production growing from its present 53 million tons per year to more than 90 million tons by 2015. “India’s intensity of steel production growth will surpass China’s in 2010 and 2011,” said Lunaya, referring to 8 percent steelmaking growth in 2010 and 13.6 percent in 2011.

She also noted that since “domestic scrap generation [meets] only 50 percent of demand, the import of scrap is a crucial source.”

Mark Lin, president of Feng Hsin Iron & Steel in Taiwan, provided a statistical overview of that nation’s status as a ferrous scrap importer.

He noted that Taiwanese rebar mills have been running at full capacity in part as a response to the Sichuan Province earthquake in China in May of 2008.

Taiwan’s scrap industry supplies about 50 percent of the ferrous scrap needed by steelmakers in Taiwan, but the rest is imported, with the United States, Japan and South Africa being prominent suppliers.

Presenters from several nations seemed to agree that imported scrap metal would remain in demand. This message often, however, was coupled with another one urging scrap suppliers to pay more attention to quality.

Xie Qiu Hui, director general of the Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, commented that secondary commodity shipments in his district have included solid waste, medical waste and swarms of mosquitoes.

The good news, he commented, is that the number of rejected loads in his district has declined from 1,500 in 2004 to a projected 300 loads for 2010.

“Foreign suppliers are very much in compliance and cooperative,” said Xie to World Scrap Congress attendees. “For that, I thank them very much.”

The World Scrap Congress, organized by Singapore-based Terrapinn, was Nov. 11-12 at the Grand Melia Hotel in Shanghai.