India's automotive component, steel, and metal recycling sectors face potential raw material disruptions, after the European Commission omitted ferrous and non-ferrous metal scrap from its draft list of authorized non-OECD waste destinations.
Shipments of essential metallic secondary raw materials from the European Union to India could be discontinued from May 21, 2027, under the updated Waste Shipment Regulation.
The regulatory move has triggered pushback from the domestic recycling ecosystem alongside international industry bodies, including the Bureau of International Recycling, who argue that halting trade will distort global circularity and inflate manufacturing costs.
India remains structurally reliant on imported secondary metals because lower historical vehicle and appliance consumption has generated limited domestic scrap pools, whereas Europe holds large accumulated reserves of end-of-life products.
"India has invested substantially in modern recycling infrastructure and has a regulatory framework governing environmental compliance. We therefore believe that policies governing scrap trade should facilitate responsible recycling rather than fragment established global supply chains," Sanjay Mehta, President of the Material Recycling Association of India, said.
Industry bodies caution that severing access to secondary raw materials will strain input economics for auto-part casting units and battery manufacturers, forcing companies to depend on costlier, carbon-intensive primary ores.