Scrap key to making Indian steel resilient: mjunction’s steel conference

Mumbai / New Delhi, July 8: As Indian steel continues to grow in scale, scrap is turning as the key to making the sector resilient and future ready, industry leaders said at mjunction’s two-day Indian Steel Markets Conference that kicked off here today.

“Decarbonisation and reducing carbon footprint is very important for us. How to achieve this? This is possible through better operational practises, newer technologies and use such raw material which can produce less pollution. So, what is that raw material? It is scrap – once considered to be of no value, but today it has become invaluable,” Dr Ashok Kumar Panda, CMD, SAIL, said during the inaugural session of the 13th Indian Steel Markets Conference.

“We all now care about scrap. It’s not waste anymore. It is tomorrow’s steel,” Vinaya Varma, MD & CEO, mjunction, said in his welcome address.

“As India’s steel demand continues to grow, scrap will increasingly become strategic raw material rather than merely a by-product. Every ton that we recover reduces dependence on virgin resources and imported scrap while strengthening India’s manufacturing ecosystem,” he added.

There are different paths, including scrap usage, to achieve decarbonisation of steelmaking, and making the right choices is a challenge before the steelmakers, said Ashish Anupam, Vice President, Marketing & Sales, Tata Steel.

“There is no one answer to solve this problem. We talk of hydrogen, we talk of carbon capture, we talk of scrap, we talk of electric arc furnace. But mind you, there’s no one single bullet which will solve the problem,” Anupam, said.

“And the key word would be how do we collaborate, innovate and make sure that we become self-reliant in the best possible manner,” he added.

While the domestic steel sector, both in terms of capacity and consumption, continues to grow, turning the sector resilient, immune to geopolitical risks and cost competitive is another major challenge, Rajat Gupta, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company, said.

In line with the industry concern of creating a sustainable ecosystem for the domestic steel sector, theme of the conference this year is the ‘Steelathon-Shaping the Steel-to-Scrap value-chain’.

As India pursues its roadmap to expand steel manufacturing capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030, securing reliable, high-grade raw material supply chains has become an urgent industrial priority.

Backed by an extensive operational footprint, mjunction helped steel mills source 2.5 million tonnes of scrap in the last fiscal year alone, successfully organizing India’s fragmented scrap market into a highly structured, circular value chain.