Europe is shutting its scrap door, and India is on the wrong side of the list

Importers looking at Public Notice No. 35/2026-27 issued on 21 October 2026 see an easy win for port logistics. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade added Adani Gangavaram to the designated sea ports list and formally permitted customs clearance for home consumption at Inland Container Depots. For anyone moving shredded or unshredded scrap, cutting out Pre-Shipment Inspection Certificates across 11 designated sea ports looks like a permanent reduction in demurrage and documentation friction.

That consensus assumes the trade lanes feeding this expanded route will remain open. They will not. While India is widening its gates for safe origins, the European Union is preparing to lock its side of the fence for non-OECD buyers.

The Expansion at Indian Customs

Under the amended paragraph 2.51(d)(v)(iv) of the Handbook of Procedures 2023, metallic waste and scrap imported from six designated safe regions can skip a PSIC. The approved origins are the USA, the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the EU. Consignments only require a certificate from the supplier or scrap yard authority stating the cargo is free of radioactive material and explosives.

Entry is restricted to 11 sea ports: Chennai, Tuticorin, Kandla, JNPT, Mumbai, Krishnapatnam, Mundra, Kattupalli, Hazira, Kamarajar and Adani Gangavaram. The rule allows ICD clearance for home consumption provided portal monitor radiation checks and container scanner inspections are completed at the entry port first. Trans-shipments through safe regions remain excluded.

This administrative ease follows months of inspection bottlenecks. On 29 September 2026, trade reports confirmed DGFT had derecognised 15 pre-shipment inspection agencies after discovering single instruments were used to issue certificates across multiple countries. The Material Recycling Association of India urged replacing PSICs with domestic port scanners. DGFT responded by easing entry for trusted regions.

The EU Export Wall in 2027

Yet the EU accounts for a massive share of the safe-region scrap lane. European Commission draft rules published on 18 September 2026 under the revised Waste Shipment Regulation exclude India from the approved list of non-OECD destinations for ferrous and non-ferrous metal scrap. Unless an excluded country demonstrates environmentally sound management, EU exports of non-hazardous metal scrap to that nation will be prohibited from 21 May 2027.

European processors depend on global outlets. Recycler Galloo France estimated that Europe produced an average annual steel scrap surplus of 15 million tonnes over domestic demand over the past decade. In aluminium scrap, India bought 366,000 tonnes from the EU in 2025. Despite these volumes, India was omitted from the draft metal scrap list after the 21 February 2025 application deadline.

The Bureau of International Recycling submitted feedback on 23 September 2026 and requested a four-week extension to the consultation on 19 October 2026, pushing the requested deadline to 13 November 2026. BIR warned that arbitrary export curbs will disrupt trade flows without building local processing capacity. The European Commission is scheduled to publish its final list by 21 November 2026.

The Logistics Strategy

Clearing scrap at inland container depots provides short-term relief against port congestion today. However, relying on EU scrap under the new 11-port framework offers a limited window. Importers should utilize the current PSIC exemption for European cargoes while establishing alternate supply routes in the USA and the UK before the 21 May 2027 prohibition takes effect.