JNPT is not really a place where you sell scrap. It is the place that decides what your scrap is worth, whether you sell in Bhiwandi, Jalna or Mandi Gobindgarh. Imported scrap lands here, and the delivered cost of a container of shredded from Rotterdam or Los Angeles sets a hard ceiling on what any domestic buyer will pay. When imports are cheap, mills switch and domestic prices get capped. When imports are expensive, that ceiling lifts and sellers everywhere have room. Right now the ceiling has lifted, and most domestic sellers have no idea it has happened.
The Number That Sets the Ceiling
Work it through, because the arithmetic is not complicated and almost nobody does it. The Turkish HMS 80:20 benchmark, which is the global reference for seaborne ferrous scrap, has been sitting around $385.50 a tonne. India’s own import assessment came in at $370.60 a tonne CFR. At roughly ₹95.15 to the dollar, that CFR figure is about ₹35,260 a tonne before anything else happens to it.
Then add what it costs to actually get that material out of the port and to a furnace. Customs duty, clearing, container freight station handling, detention if anything goes slowly, and inland haulage. Forty to forty-five dollars a tonne is a working figure for the whole chain, which puts landed cost somewhere north of ₹39,000 a tonne by the time it reaches a mill gate.
Now compare that with domestic. Mumbai HMS 80:20 is around ₹32,900 a tonne. Jalna is near ₹32,700. Even Mandi Gobindgarh end-cutting, which is premium prepared material, sits at ₹38,500. Imported scrap is simply not competitive at these levels, which is why the price cap that held coastal Indian scrap down through the middle of the year has come off.
Two variables move this and you should watch both rather than either alone. The Turkish benchmark drives what every exporter in Europe, the UK and the US East Coast can charge. The rupee decides what that costs you here. A stronger rupee quietly makes imports cheaper and squeezes the domestic ceiling back down even if the dollar price has not moved at all. Sellers who track only one of the two get surprised regularly.
What It Actually Takes to Import Scrap Here
If you are thinking about importing rather than buying domestic, the regulatory position is the first thing to understand and it stops a lot of people before they start. Metallic waste and scrap coming into India, whether shredded, un-shredded, compressed or loose, normally requires a Pre-Shipment Inspection Certificate. The PSIC exists to certify that the consignment is free of radioactive material, explosives, arms, ammunition, mines, grenades and live or used cartridges. It is issued by a Pre-Shipment Inspection Agency recognised by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, whose inspector attends the exporter’s yard and inspects the material as it loads.
There is an important exemption. Scrap originating in what the policy calls safe countries and regions, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union, can be cleared without a PSIC through a list of designated ports. That exemption does not extend to trans-shipments routed through those countries, so the origin has to be genuine rather than convenient. Exempt consignments still have to carry a certificate from the supplier or scrap yard confirming the absence of radioactive material and explosives.
And exemption from paperwork is not exemption from inspection. Every designated port handling un-shredded scrap is required to run radiation portal monitors and container scanners, certified through the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and cleared by Customs before DGFT will notify the port at all. Consignments go through radiation and explosive screening regardless of where they came from. Import through non-designated ports, or from anywhere outside the safe list, needs a PSIC whatever the origin.
The practical takeaway for a small or mid-sized buyer is blunt. Importing is a documentation and compliance business before it is a metal business. Between the inspection regime, container freight station charges, detention exposure if clearance slows, and the working capital tied up while a box sits, the delivered cost is a long way above the headline CFR number. That is precisely why domestic material at ₹32,900 is winning right now, and why anyone quoting you a domestic price against a raw CFR figure is comparing two things that are not comparable.
The Scrap the Port Itself Produces
Separately from what arrives in containers, the JNPT and Uran complex generates its own material, and the mix is unlike anywhere else on this coast because it is built around the container rather than around a factory.
End-of-life shipping containers are the headline category. Container walls and roofs are made from weathering steel, commonly called Corten, which contains copper and chromium and is deliberately formulated to resist atmospheric corrosion. Mills are happy with it and it grades as good heavy melting, but it is thinner than structural plate so it should not be confused with heavy section. A container also gives up cast steel corner castings and twist locks, a steel underframe with cross members, and door hardware. The flooring is usually marine plywood rather than metal, which surprises people expecting a full steel weight.
Reefer units are where the money is. A refrigerated container carries a complete refrigeration plant: compressor, condenser and evaporator coils in copper, aluminium panelling and cladding, stainless components and a substantial wiring loom. Per unit the copper and aluminium content dwarfs the value of the steel box around it. A reefer stripped properly and one sold as a container are two very different transactions.
Lashing and securing gear accumulates continuously. Lashing bars, turnbuckles, bottle screws, chains and shackles are high tensile steel, better than ordinary mixed scrap and worth separating. So is used wire rope from cranes and handling equipment, which is high carbon steel but arrives greasy and often fibre-cored, so it takes a discount unless it is cut and drained.
On top of that there is the ordinary industrial stream from a working port: handling equipment wear parts, conveyor and structural steel from maintenance, damaged cargo written off by insurers, and the container freight station and repair yards around Uran and Dronagiri that cut and patch boxes as routine work.
Rates Around JNPT, Uran and Dronagiri
This is the one location on the Konkan coast where local rates are genuinely competitive, because you are effectively inside the Navi Mumbai market rather than a truck ride from it. Taloja, the TTC belt and the Panvel and Kalamboli yards are all close. Rupees per kilo, before 18% GST.
| Material | At JNPT / Uran | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Reefer copper coils and wiring, stripped | ₹800 – ₹880 | Trade level runs ₹1,190 – ₹1,240 |
| Brass and bronze fittings | ₹390 – ₹470 | Marine and valve hardware |
| Reefer aluminium panels and cladding | ₹144 – ₹158 | Trade level ₹250 – ₹262 |
| Stainless steel 304 | ₹96 – ₹130 | Magnet-test before quoting |
| Damaged cargo steel, coil, plate | ₹33.50 – ₹37 | Often prime material, price it as such |
| Lashing bars, turnbuckles, chains | ₹32.50 – ₹36 | High tensile, separate it out |
| Container plate and Corten sections | ₹31.50 – ₹35 | Weathering steel, thinner than structural |
| Port structural steel and equipment | ₹31 – ₹34.50 | Maintenance and modification work |
| Corner castings and twist locks | ₹30 – ₹33.50 | Cast steel |
| Steel wire rope (cut and drained) | ₹29 – ₹33 | Discounted if tangled or greasy |
| Cast iron (pump and valve bodies) | ₹28.50 – ₹32.50 | |
| Mixed and unsorted | ₹27.50 – ₹30.50 | Sort it and stop giving value away |
Watch the damaged cargo line. Steel coil, plate or sections written off after a container incident are usually prime mill material with a certificate somewhere behind them, not scrap in any real sense. Sold as heavy melting they fetch around ₹34. Identified and sold as what they are, they do considerably better. Insurers and surveyors dispose of this regularly and buyers are quietly delighted when nobody checks.
Selling Around the Port Without Losing Money
Strip reefers rather than selling them whole. This is the single biggest value decision in the area. A refrigeration unit sold as part of a container gets the container price. Stripped, the copper coils and wiring alone move into a band roughly twenty-five times the steel rate, with aluminium panelling behind it. If you are not equipped to strip, sell it to someone who prices the copper content explicitly rather than someone quoting per box.
Do not let high tensile disappear into mixed. Lashing bars, turnbuckles and chains look like ordinary steel to anyone not paying attention, and they routinely end up in the mixed pile at ₹28 instead of the ₹33 or so they are worth. It is a five minute sorting job with a real return.
Get the paperwork right, because this is a customs environment. Material moving in and around a port area attracts more scrutiny than material moving out of a village yard, and rightly so. Keep clean documentation on where the material came from and how you acquired it, especially anything that originated in a bonded or customs-controlled area, and insist on GST invoicing throughout. A registered buyer reclaims the eighteen percent input credit, which is exactly why he can afford to pay more for documented material than an unregistered one can.
Weigh on a bridge you can verify. Commercial weighbridges must be verified and stamped under the Legal Metrology Act, administered by the Department of Consumer Affairs, and you are entitled to a slip from a bridge with current certification. In a market this close to Navi Mumbai there is no shortage of options, so there is no reason to accept a doubtful reading.
One final point that applies specifically here. Because you are inside the Navi Mumbai catchment rather than outside it, freight is not your problem and you should not accept a freight-discounted quote. Anyone offering you deep-Konkan rates on the basis that Uran is remote is trying it on. Taloja and the TTC belt are half an hour away.
Who to Call
Unlike the rest of the Konkan, this area has no shortage of buyers, because the Navi Mumbai trade reaches right down to Uran and Panvel. That is good for you, and it means you should be collecting several quotes rather than accepting the first. What matters is finding someone who will price container-derived material properly rather than lumping Corten, cast steel corner fittings, high tensile lashing gear and reefer copper into one number.
Steel Baba
We buy across the Uran, Panvel, Dronagiri and Kalamboli belt and we price container-derived material line by line: Corten plate, corner castings, high tensile lashing gear, reefer copper and aluminium all quoted separately rather than folded into one figure. Certified weighbridge slip, GST invoice, payment inside 48 hours. Container freight station and repair yard clearances handled at volume, and if you are weighing a domestic purchase against an import quote we will walk you through the landed cost honestly rather than selling you a number.
Second quote: SK Steels on +91 75079 24422. With this many active buyers in the catchment, taking the first offer is the only genuinely avoidable mistake on this page.
Questions About Scrap at JNPT
It sets the ceiling. The delivered cost of imported scrap is what a mill compares your domestic material against, so when imports are cheap domestic prices get capped and when imports are expensive that cap lifts. Right now the Turkish HMS 80:20 benchmark is around $385.50 a tonne and India’s import assessment about $370.60 CFR, which at roughly ₹95.15 to the dollar is near ₹35,260 a tonne before clearing. Add customs, container freight station handling and inland haulage, commonly forty to forty-five dollars a tonne across the chain, and landed cost passes ₹39,000. Against Mumbai domestic at ₹32,900 and Jalna at ₹32,700, imports are not competitive, which is good news for domestic sellers.
A Pre-Shipment Inspection Certificate certifies that a metallic waste and scrap consignment is free of radioactive material, explosives, arms, ammunition, mines, grenades and live or used cartridges. It is normally required for shredded, un-shredded, compressed and loose scrap, and is issued by a Pre-Shipment Inspection Agency recognised by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, whose inspector attends the exporter’s yard during loading. There is an exemption for material originating in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union when cleared through designated ports, though that does not cover trans-shipments routed through those countries, and exempt consignments still need a supplier certificate confirming no radioactive material or explosives.
Yes, and exemption from PSIC paperwork is not exemption from inspection. Every sea port designated to handle un-shredded metallic scrap is required to operate radiation portal monitors and container scanners, certified through the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and cleared by Customs before the Directorate General of Foreign Trade will notify the port at all. Consignments go through radiation and explosive screening regardless of country of origin. Import through non-designated ports, or from outside the safe country list, requires a PSIC whatever the origin.
More than people expect on the metal and less than they expect on the weight. Container walls and roofs are weathering steel, commonly called Corten, which contains copper and chromium and resists atmospheric corrosion. Mills take it happily and it grades as good heavy melting at ₹31.50 to ₹35/kg, though it is thinner than structural plate so do not price it as heavy section. A container also yields cast steel corner castings and twist locks at ₹30 to ₹33.50/kg and a steel underframe. The flooring is usually marine plywood rather than metal, which catches out anyone estimating a full steel weight.
Almost always, and it is the biggest single value decision in this area. A refrigerated container carries a complete refrigeration plant with compressor, condenser and evaporator coils in copper, aluminium panelling, stainless components and a substantial wiring loom. Sold whole, the unit gets the container price. Stripped, the copper alone sits at ₹800 to ₹880/kg locally against ₹31.50 to ₹35 for the steel box, with aluminium panelling at ₹144 to ₹158 behind it. If you are not equipped to strip it yourself, sell to a buyer who prices the copper content explicitly rather than one quoting per box.
Genuinely competitive, because you are inside the Navi Mumbai market rather than a truck ride from it, with Taloja, the TTC belt and the Panvel and Kalamboli yards all close by. Damaged cargo steel and plate fetch ₹33.50 to ₹37/kg, high tensile lashing bars and turnbuckles ₹32.50 to ₹36/kg, container Corten plate ₹31.50 to ₹35/kg, port structural steel ₹31 to ₹34.50/kg, wire rope ₹29 to ₹33/kg and mixed unsorted ₹27.50 to ₹30.50/kg. Non-ferrous runs far higher, with reefer copper at ₹800 to ₹880/kg. All figures exclude 18% GST. Do not accept a freight-discounted quote here, because Uran is not remote.
Not as scrap, if you can help it. Steel coil, plate or sections written off after a container or handling incident are usually prime mill material with certification somewhere behind them, and physical damage to a coil edge does not turn the whole thing into heavy melting. Sold as scrap it fetches around ₹34/kg. Identified and sold as what it actually is, it does considerably better. Insurers and surveyors dispose of this material regularly and buyers are quietly pleased when nobody looks closely at what is in the lot.
Benchmark and currency figures move constantly and the domestic comparison shifts with them, so confirm before you commit either way. The wider catchment position is set out for Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, and sellers south of Panvel will find the coastal picture on our Alibaug page.