Howrah’s foundry cluster has been generating cast iron scrap for over 150 years. Buyers in Durgapur know that Howrah machine shop offcuts are a different product from generic cast iron collected off the street, and they price it differently. The sellers who understand this distinction document their source and collect the premium. The ones who do not label everything as cast iron and wonder why they are getting docked.
Kolkata scrap rate today for September 2026 is holding between Rs.30–42/kg depending on grade, material source, and which buyer you are talking to. That range is not a wide estimate. It reflects a market where factory-sourced industrial steel and household-grade mixed iron are two different products that no serious buyer will price the same way.
Kolkata Scrap Rate September 2026: Grade-Wise Table
These are the active indicative rates as of 16 September 2026:
| Scrap Grade | Rate Per Kg | Rate Per Tonne |
|---|---|---|
| Standard iron / ferrous scrap | Rs.30 – Rs.34 | Rs.30,000 – Rs.34,000 |
| Industrial steel scrap mix | Rs.35 – Rs.42 | Rs.35,000 – Rs.42,000 |
| HMS 1 (heavy melting scrap) | Rs.28 – Rs.34 | Rs.28,000 – Rs.34,000 |
| HMS 2 (mixed / lighter gauge) | Rs.28 – Rs.34 | Rs.28,000 – Rs.34,000 |
| MS iron sheet scrap | Rs.36 – Rs.40 | Rs.36,000 – Rs.40,000 |
| Cast iron (industrial grade) | Rs.30 – Rs.34 | Rs.30,000 – Rs.34,000 |
| Cast iron (foundry / low grade) | Rs.24 – Rs.29 | Rs.24,000 – Rs.29,000 |
Rates have softened Rs.500–1,000 per tonne since February September 2026. The trigger was a scheduled maintenance cycle at induction furnaces supplying Durgapur, Asansol, and Burnpur, which pulled weekly intake volumes down. When furnace demand drops, every scrap yard within 100km feels it within 48 hours. Dealers in West Bengal who were sitting on inventory waiting for a recovery had to move material at Rs.1–2/kg below their cost price just to clear stock before the next buying cycle opened.
Why Kolkata Loha Rate Differs From Other Cities
A 10-tonne load from Howrah to a Durgapur re-roller covers 180km on NH-19 and costs Rs.5,000-8,000 in freight and tolls. Asansol is 200km at similar cost. Burnpur is 215km. These are not extreme distances, but the NH-19 corridor has weighbridge checkpoints that slow transit times and occasionally add undocumented handling costs that buyers factor into their purchase quotes.
Sellers who benchmark their local quote against a national published rate without adjusting for the local freight corridor will always feel shortchanged, even when they are getting a fair deal. Understanding how scrap transport costs affect your final rate is the most useful calculation any Kolkata seller can do before entering a negotiation.
Factory-Direct vs Yard-Collected: Where the Real Money Is
Nobody tells you this part upfront, but it is where the real price gap lives in the Kolkata market.
A factory-direct lot from Howrah engineering cluster, Liluah railway workshops, and Dankuni industrial zone comes with a known origin, predictable grade mix, and at minimum a gate pass the buyer can verify. That certainty is worth Rs.3–5/kg more than yard-collected mixed scrap, where the buyer has no choice but to price worst-case purity into his offer. Yard-collected scrap is a black box to a furnace operator. It might be 85% clean HMS or it might carry 12–15% non-ferrous contamination that burns up heat and melt time. That uncertainty gets priced in immediately. The full economics behind this gap are explained at factory vs yard scrap price difference.
How Kolkata Buyers Grade Your Material
This is where most sellers lose money, and it happens after the rate is already agreed.
HMS 1 must be thick-gauge, clean ferrous with no non-ferrous attachments. Buyers in Howrah, Liluah, and Dankuni run induction furnaces where material consistency directly affects output quality. HMS 1 currently fetches Rs.28–34/kg, but any load with mixed sizing or visible scale gets pushed toward the lower band or reclassified entirely. The full grading criteria that buyers apply is covered in the HMS 1 vs HMS 2 scrap specs guide.
HMS 2 trades at the same band on paper, but buyers apply Rs.1–2/kg discounts on loads with significant light-gauge or mixed-profile content. If your material gets reclassified from HMS 1 to HMS 2 at the destination gate, that is a Rs.10,000–16,000 swing on an 8-tonne deal. Grade correctly before loading, not after arrival.
MS iron sheet scrap holds at Rs.36–40/kg because it charges directly into induction furnaces without pre-processing. Cast iron industrial grade at Rs.30–34/kg is steady. Foundry-grade or low-purity cast iron at Rs.24–29/kg is the most volatile category because carbon content uncertainty creates melt risk that buyers price heavily. The value comparison between HMS and cast iron grades is broken down at HMS vs cast iron scrap value.
What Really Happens at the Weighbridge
Here is the catch that experienced sellers already know: the rate agreed on the phone is a starting point, not a final number. The real negotiation happens at the weighbridge and during unloading, and if you are not prepared, you lose money on a deal you thought was already closed.
A Liluah dealer sold 10 tonnes of railway workshop scrap as HMS 1 at Rs.32/kg to a Durgapur re-roller. At the buyer’s gate, three pieces were identified as having non-standard alloy content from railway-spec steel, which does not melt the same way as standard HMS 1 in an induction furnace. The buyer reclassified those pieces as special alloy scrap at Rs.28/kg. That partial reclassification cut Rs.3,200 off the settlement. Railway workshop scrap has to be disclosed as such before pricing, not after it arrives.
Buyers across West Bengal consistently dock for:
- Moisture content: wet loads from outdoor storage or transit rain get docked Rs.1–2/kg across the full consignment
- Non-ferrous contamination: copper wire, aluminium brackets, rubber, and plastic mixed into ferrous piles trigger immediate reclassification
- Grade inconsistency: HMS 1 that fails the buyer’s thickness check gets repriced as HMS 2 on the spot
- Weighbridge discrepancy: your yard tare weight versus the buyer’s certified bridge at destination
Grading and segregating before the truck leaves is the only way to avoid a gate-side argument with no documentation to support your position.
The Kolkata Rate Pattern Most Sellers Miss
But that is only half the picture when reading the West Bengal market.
Howrah’s foundry cluster is one of India’s oldest. Cast iron from Howrah machine shops commands a specific foundry-grade premium that buyers in Durgapur pay when they know the source. Material labelled simply as cast iron from an unknown yard gets docked Rs.3-5/kg versus verified Howrah foundry offcuts. Source documentation matters here more than in most other Indian cities because Durgapur buyers have been trained for decades to pay the Howrah premium when it is verifiable.
Post-Durga Puja in October sees a predictable 2-week rate dip as mills clear buffer stock accumulated before the festival and intake drops temporarily. Sellers who close deals in the last week of September before the Puja shutdown consistently get Rs.500-1,000 per tonne more than those who wait until mid-October when the market reopens but buyers are working through their stockpile.
Beyond the city-specific pattern, Friday afternoon is consistently the weakest closing window across India. Induction furnaces reduce intake going into the weekend when maintenance staff is minimal, and buyers have no urgency to commit. Mid-week, Tuesday to Thursday morning, is when furnace intake calendars are being filled and buyers close at the stronger end of the weekly band. If you want to understand how steel plants decide their weekly scrap intake rates, that cycle is explained in detail.
Common Questions on Kolkata Scrap Rate
What is the scrap rate in Kolkata today?
Kolkata scrap rates in September 2026 range from Rs.24/kg for low-grade cast iron to Rs.42/kg for clean industrial steel mix. HMS 1 is fetching Rs.28-34/kg at Howrah and Dankuni buyers, with a verifiable Howrah foundry-grade cast iron premium of Rs.3-5/kg above anonymous cast iron from unknown sources.
Why does Howrah cast iron command a premium in Kolkata?
Howrah’s foundry cluster has a 150-year history of producing engineering-grade cast iron in machine shops and foundries. Durgapur buyers know the grade characteristics of Howrah foundry offcuts and have been paying a documented-source premium for decades. Anonymous cast iron without a Howrah source certificate gets priced as generic yard-collected material.
How does Durga Puja affect Kolkata scrap rates?
Mills build buffer stock in September before Durga Puja, which drives up rates in the last 2 weeks of September. Post-Puja in October, mills work through their stockpile and intake drops, pushing rates down Rs.500-1,000 per tonne for 2 weeks. Sellers who close in late September consistently get better rates than those who wait for the October reopening.
What should I declare when selling railway workshop scrap in Kolkata?
Railway-spec steel has different alloy content from standard HMS 1 and melts differently in an induction furnace. Always disclose the railway workshop source before pricing, not after arrival. Buyers will pay a fair rate for properly disclosed railway scrap, but an undisclosed reclassification at the gate results in a forced discount with no room to negotiate.
If you want verified daily rates across West Bengal alongside access to screened buyers, Steel Baba tracks city-level ferrous prices and connects sellers with buyers whose legitimacy has already been checked. The mistakes that cost sellers the most money in early deals are covered at scrap seller mistakes to avoid.
All figures above are indicative and subject to daily market movement; confirm current rates directly with your buyer or a local dealer before finalising any load as of 16 September 2026.