Punjab is the only state in India where the scrap yard and the furnace gate are sometimes the same address. At Mandi Gobindgarh, 300-plus rolling mills operate within a 10km radius, and material moves from a dealer’s yard to a re-roller’s charge floor in under 20 minutes. That geography creates a scrap market unlike anywhere else in the country, and it shows in the rates.
Punjab 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.
Punjab 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 Mandi Gobindgarh, which pulled weekly intake volumes down. When furnace demand drops, every scrap yard within 100km feels it within 48 hours. Dealers in Punjab 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 Punjab Loha Rate Differs From Other Cities
A Ludhiana dealer moving HMS to a Gobindgarh re-roller covers 80km and pays Rs.4,000-6,000 in freight on a 10-tonne load. Compare that to a Delhi seller pushing the same grade to Muzaffarnagar at Rs.9,000-13,000 freight on the same tonnage. That Rs.5,000-7,000 freight gap is why Punjab HMS rates consistently beat Delhi rates on the same day for the same grade.
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 Punjab 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 Punjab market.
A factory-direct lot from Mandi Gobindgarh steel cluster, Ludhiana industrial belt, and Bathinda yards 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 Punjab 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 Mandi Gobindgarh, Ludhiana, and Bathinda 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 Bathinda dealer shipped 12 tonnes of HMS 1 to a Gobindgarh re-roller. The buyer’s team pulled three pieces from the load that were under 6mm gauge and reclassified the entire lot as HMS 2. That one grading call dropped the agreed rate by Rs.2/kg. Rs.24,000 off a deal that looked clean on paper, closed over the phone at a rate the seller thought was final.
Buyers across Punjab 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 Punjab Rate Pattern Most Sellers Miss
But that is only half the picture when reading the Punjab market.
Ludhiana bicycle and auto-parts factories generate unusually clean MS sheet scrap as industrial offcuts. Dealers with direct factory gate agreements on these units sell at Rs.4-6/kg above what yard-collected mixed scrap fetches at Gobindgarh buyers, because the purity is documented and the melt behaviour is predictable. Most new dealers in Punjab never find out these contracts exist because they never go directly to the factory purchase manager.
Wheat harvest season in April and May sees transport trucks diverted across rural Punjab for grain movement. Scrap freight availability drops sharply, delivered costs rise, and buyers who want consistent intake have to quote Rs.500-800 per tonne higher to secure loads. Sellers sitting on stock in late March who wait for harvest season to end up catching both the freight tightening and the post-harvest rate reset.
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 Punjab Scrap Rate
What is the scrap rate in Punjab today?
Punjab scrap rates in September 2026 range from Rs.24/kg for low-grade cast iron to Rs.42/kg for clean industrial steel mix from factory floors. HMS 1 at Gobindgarh buyers is fetching Rs.28-34/kg depending on gauge consistency and source documentation.
Which city in Punjab has the highest scrap rate?
Mandi Gobindgarh consistently quotes the strongest rates for HMS 1 and MS sheet because re-rollers there compete directly with each other for supply. Ludhiana rates are close, but freight from collection points to Gobindgarh mills adds cost that buyers recover from the purchase price.
Why does Punjab scrap rate differ from Delhi rate?
Punjab, specifically Gobindgarh, has its furnaces co-located with the scrap market. There is almost no freight cost between yard and buyer. Delhi sellers quote material that must travel 100-200km before reaching a furnace, and that transport premium directly reduces what they receive.
How do I sell scrap directly to a Gobindgarh re-roller?
Contact the purchase departments of rolling mills directly, not through intermediary brokers who take Rs.1-2/kg commission. Bring a grade certificate or segregate your material by thickness before presenting it. Mills at Gobindgarh pay a verified-source premium of Rs.2-4/kg over mixed yard lots.
If you want verified daily rates across Punjab 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.