Steel scrap is a vital raw material for the production of new steel and cast-iron products, and is a hundred percent recyclable. Since domestically generated steel scrap falls short of requirements by the casting and steel making industries, India imports this resource.
In 2013-2014 India imported five million tons of steel scrap, making it the world’s third largest importer of the metal, after Turkey and South Korea. While there is no official data on the amount of steel scrap being produced within the country, rough estimates put the figure at around ten million tons a year.
Steel is the most recycled material in the world with scrap accounting for 40 percent of the global steel production, reports The Hindu BusinessLine. The re-melting of scrap requires much less energy than the production of iron and steel products from iron ore.
The U.S. steel industry has been recycling steel scrap for more than 150 years, and the steel making and foundry industries are highly dependent upon the ready availability of scrap from manufacturing operations, and from the recovery of products that are no longer used or needed. The country also exports scrap iron mainly to Turkey, Taiwan, the Republic of Korea, and China, and will likely continue exporting valuable ferrous scrap for at least another decade.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
