Tata Steel Recycling Business has launched a new app to help it source scrap steel from traders in India by removing price uncertainty.
The company believes its FerroHaat app, which creates a virtual marketplace to sell scrap steel, is the first of its kind in the world and will foster trust, transparency and ease of doing business in the scrap industry.
The 24-hour live marketplace will contain different sections for business transactions, a snapshot of market conditions and information about the supplier’s account.
Yogesh Bedi, chief, Steel Recycling Business, Tata Steel, said: “Scrap buying and selling is a tedious affair. The prices change by the hour.”
He said price volatility made traders and buyers feel apprehensive.
“The best part is that it collaborates with the existing scrap yards and traders and provides them with a transparent platform with stability in prices. Large transactions can now be done with a click of a few buttons,” he added.
Meanwhile Tata Steel is setting up a state-of-the-art scrap processing plant to collaborate with local traders from scrapyards and car dismantlers.
The plant, which will be located in Haryan, India, aims to produce high-quality processed ferrous scrap and streamline what the company described as “the currently unorganised scrap supply chain”.
It would also lower dependency on imports, and enhance the transparency and efficiency in the entire value chain.
Tata Steel group has operations in five countries with an annual crude steel capacity of 34m tonnes. It had a turnover of $19.7bn in the year to March 2020.
The Covid-19 pandemic has caused standstills at several stainless steel mills globally either because of falling demand or due to lockdown measures.
The economic slowdown has significantly reduced demand for scrap steel and global stocks of finished stainless steel are at record highs.
In the worst-affected parts of China and Italy many plants shut down after workers tested positive for the virus.
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