Aluminium scrap is the only major base-metal scrap India still charges an import duty on, after copper, zinc and lead went to nil. Two industry bodies now want that 2.5% changed in opposite directions, and the decision lands at the February 2027 Budget. If you import, trade or remelt aluminium scrap, this fight sets your landed cost for the next year.
In the week to 15 October 2026, brass scrap in Delhi and Jamnagar fell by ₹35 to ₹54 a kg and aluminium alloy ingot slipped about 2%, as downstream factories went quiet before Diwali on 8 November. The telling part is that it happened even where global metal moved the other way: LME copper rose about 1.2% over the fortnight while Indian brass scrap dropped, because the price you get in mid-October is set by local festive demand, not the exchange. Steel scrap, by contrast, barely moved. For dealers sitting on clean non-ferrous scrap, this is a holding decision, not a distress sale.
Dubai Customs' four-month ban on aluminium, copper and iron scrap exports reached its end date on 8 October 2026 and, under its own terms, renewed automatically, because no cancelling notice was issued. Official trade data show Gulf aluminium scrap shipments to India fell by a third in April to July 2026, while India paid about 42% more per kilo for the scrap it imported in July. Two decisions in Delhi, on the 2.5% import duty and on inspection certificates, are still pending.
The immediate risk of a 15% EU export duty on aluminium scrap is gone, dropped to protect a wider trade deal with India. But for Indian buyers and sellers, the relief is temporary. The EU is now shifting its focus to a powerful new weapon: the Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR), which could block scrap flows to India from May 2027.
