German recycling firm Rocklink is targeting ₹250 crore to ₹300 crore in revenue from its India operations over the next five years, following the commissioning of its first integrated recycling facility in the country. The company has invested around ₹30 crore in the Sikandrabad, Uttar Pradesh-based plant, which will process lithium-ion batteries, rare earth magnets and metal-bearing industrial waste as part of its strategy to build a circular materials ecosystem in India. 

“A safe number, let’s say ₹250 crore to ₹300 crore, is definitely possible if you look at a five-year horizon,” said Leonard Ansorge, Director, Rocklink India Pvt Ltd in an exclusive conversation, while adding that the opportunity could expand further as additional segments scale up over time.

The facility comes with an initial lithium-ion battery recycling capacity of 10,000 tonnes per year and rare earth magnet processing capability of 60 tonnes per month, positioning it as an integrated operation covering batteries, electric motors and associated materials streams. Ansorge said the company’s approach is to capture synergies across the entire drivetrain rather than operate in silos. 

“We take care of the entire drivetrain. That creates synergies across batteries, electric motors and materials,” he said. However, he acknowledged that the investment is forward-looking, with current scrap availability remaining a constraint not just in India but globally. With EV adoption still at a relatively early stage, particularly in two- and three-wheelers, meaningful volumes of end-of-life battery scrap are expected to emerge only over the next two to three years.

Rocklink’s growth strategy in India goes beyond battery recycling and hinges on building a multi-segment presence that includes refurbishment and rare earth processing. Ansorge said that relying solely on mechanical recycling would not be sufficient to reach the projected revenue scale. 

“On mechanical recycling alone, that level is not possible. It has to be a combination of different segments,” he said. The company plans to add battery refurbishment capabilities to enable grading and reuse of viable cells for second-life applications such as energy storage systems, while also expanding into rare earth recycling and initial refining stages. He noted that while rare earths present a long-term opportunity, the ecosystem in India is still evolving and requires the parallel development of magnet manufacturing to unlock scale.

A key challenge for the sector remains the lack of domestic demand for certain refined materials, particularly those linked to nickel-manganese-cobalt battery chemistries. India’s EV market is largely lithium iron phosphate-based, which limits local consumption of materials such as cobalt sulphate. “There is very little demand for fine chemicals in India today. That is why most players are exporting,” Ansorge said. As a result, while recycling and initial processing will be carried out locally, a significant share of refined output is expected to be routed through global markets until domestic demand deepens.

Despite these constraints, Rocklink remains bullish on India’s long-term potential, driven by policy momentum around formalising the recycling sector and improving traceability through frameworks such as extended producer responsibility. Ansorge said regulatory developments have been a key trigger for the company’s entry into India and will play a critical role in shaping the market over the next decade. At the same time, he flagged GST on scrap transactions as a structural hurdle and called for a reverse charge mechanism to ease procurement risks. “This is an investment in the future. The sector is young, but the momentum is clearly building,” he said.

Globally, the Rocklink Group currently generates around $250 million in revenue, with its overseas operations growing at a pace of 30–40 percent annually. Against this backdrop, India remains a relatively small but fast-evolving market within its global network, with Ansorge indicating that the country’s contribution will take time to scale meaningfully given the early stage of the recycling ecosystem and limited availability of scrap volumes.