Mahindra MSTC Recycling Private Ltd (MMRPL) plans to set up three collection and dismantling (C&D) centres in Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai in addition to its existing facility at Noida.
MMRPL, which is a joint venture between Mahindra and MSTC, also expects to commission a shredding plant at Dahej in Gujarat by early next fiscal.
According to BB Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, MSTC, the three C&D units would together entail an investment of ₹120-130 crore, and the shredding unit close to ₹120 crore. “At the C&D units, the end of life vehicles are de-polluted and dismantled by taking out the burnt oil, air bags, tyres and batteries which are considered to be hazardous. It is then sold to authorised recyclers approved by the Central Pollution Control Board through our own e-commerce portal,” Singh told BusinessLine on the sidelines of a CII event here recently.
MMRPL has already collected 450 vehicles, both passenger and commercial, for its Noida unit since it commenced operations two months ago. The unit has a capacity to knock down 50 vehicles a day. Apart from sale of spare parts, the hulk of the vehicle, which is auto grade steel, could become the raw material for induction and arc furnaces required in the steel industry.
Singh hoped that the roll out of the clunker policy, which is currently at an ‘advanced stage’, would help shape up the industry better.
Bring down imports
According to him, India currently imports close to seven million tonnes of shredded scrap as raw material for the steel industry. Setting up shredding units and C&D centres, which feed the shredding plant, would help substitute imports to a great extent.
“There will be a requirement of at least 70 shredding plants to negate existing imports of shredded scraps and about 300 C&D centres are required to be set up. We are betting on the upcoming scrap policy,” he said.
MMRPL’s one-lakh-tonne shredding plant at Dahej is expected to be commissioned by July.
“We have chosen to have a shredding unit at Dahej so that if there no adequate supply (of raw material) from the domestic market, then we can explore imports from Gulf countries,” he said.