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INSIDE INDIA Suming Facilities and Two Container Terminals, Business Trips Aren’T Glamorous

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INSIDE INDIA Suming Facilities and Two Container Terminals, Business Trips Aren’T Glamorous ndia is one of the world’s fastest-growing industry, and getting briefed on various issues scrap markets. Total U.S. scrap exports related to Indian trade. They received a warm to that country were valued at more than welcome. “The people we met were very engag- $367 million in 2005, and U.S. ferrous ing and very friendly,” says Randy Goodman, Iexports there grew more than 200 percent from director of international nonferrous marketing 2004 to 2005, to 743,000 mt. Despite this recent and logistics for Carolinas Recycling Group LLC trade growth, scrap exporters wonder if high (Spartanburg, S.C.). Further, “the Indian govern- transportation costs and other barriers will limit ment and business officials expressed serious the country’s attractiveness as a destination for intentions in building the trade connection with U.S. scrap. About two dozen ISRI members and the United States and ISRI constituents,” says staffers decided to see for themselves by partici- Karen Strelitz, executive vice president of pating in a January trade mission organized by California Metal-X (Los Angeles). She says the the association and the U.S. Department of trade mission made her “better prepared to work Commerce. with our trade partners, knowing the growing From Mumbai on the west coast to Delhi in requirements and domestic outline of India, its the north and Kolkata in the east, the mission infrastructure, and its market prospects.” participants spent 10 days traversing the subcon- tinent, visiting 10 metals processing and con- INSIDE INDIA suming facilities and two container terminals, Business trips aren’t glamorous. Other than a meeting with leaders in the country’s metals day trip to the Taj Mahal, the tour had a packed, PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALAN ALPERT AND JIM SKIPSEY ALAN ALPERT BY PHOTOGRAPHS 118 _ Scrap _ MARCH/APRIL 2007 www.scrap.org scrap-oriented itinerary. The delegates spent Because there was so little free time, many much of their time in transit, either flying delegates added a few days of sightseeing before among the three cities in which the mission was or after the official visit. Goodman and some based or moving to and from ferrous and nonfer- other delegates took an extra day to see historic rous facilities and shipping terminals that were sites in Kolkata, including Mother Teresa’s for- typically hours away from the downtown hotels. mer house and mission. Goodman found the Still, the travel gave the delegates ample time to mission inspirational. “Being a Jewish person, get a glimpse of a country that has long held a I still felt that I was in the presence of a saint prominent place in the Western imagination. who did God’s work,” he says. “We were in the bus at 6:30 every morning,” Not all of India is beautiful, though. Jim says Jim Snyder of Neville Metals/Assad Iron & Skipsey, a trader with Alpert & Alpert Iron & Metals Inc. (Pittsburgh), “but the sights and Metal Inc. (Los Angeles), was shocked by the sounds of India were there with us. It kept your level of poverty he saw. “It was something I’ve eyes busy every second of every day.” The bus never seen in my entire life, and I’ve been to navigated among wandering Brahma cows, tiny Third World countries,” he says. About one- taxis, and people carrying huge loads on their third of India’s people—-a number greater than heads. “It was a most awesome, eye-opening the entire U.S. population—live on less than experience,” Strelitz says. “Every turn, every $1 a day. “I never felt like we were in any moment was a caravan of new and uncharted harm, though,” Skipsey says. “The Indian peo- experiences into the Indian culture and country.” ple were very nice and living in harmony, FROM DELHI TO MUMBAI TO KOLKATA, ISRI MEMBERS TOOK A GOOD LOOK AT THE INDIAN METALS INDUSTRY AND THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IT PRESENTS FOR U.S. SCRAP. BY ANN C. LOGUE The ISRI trade mission group (far left) saw everything from manual scrap operations to the sublime Taj Mahal during its 10-day journey through the exotic and perplexing country that is India. www.scrap.org MARCH/APRIL 2007 _ Scrap _ 119 given that there are so many people crowded in one place.” INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES For Alan Alpert, president of Alpert & Alpert, the most fascinating aspect of India was “the infrastructure and the way the people got around”: buses, three-wheeled taxis holding 15 people, motorcycles carrying five people, ox carts, bicycles, even camels. Infra - structure is one of the country’s biggest weaknesses, the delegates note. “We were traveling around in a bus, and after a five-hour trip to one of the plants, we discussed what problems there must be in containers of metal getting to a facility on these roads,” Alpert says. As the trip photographer, he sat at the front of the bus, where he witnessed the unimaginable traffic, sheep and cows alongside and on the road, and “complete disregard for any rules of the road,” he says. “We were all amazed that we didn’t see acci- dents all day long.” Even on new highways, there were places where the bus had to slow down to navigate over potholes. A mile from one facility—a foundry that Mission participant Alan Alpert (top) tries his hand at sorting nonferrous metals appeared to produce manhole covers at an Indian scrap operation. Above, two workers use poles to break apart bales used by several major U.S. metropoli- of scrap. Below, aluminum scrap is transformed into ingots at Sunland Metal & tan areas—the road became too narrow Recycling Industries in Sylvassa, north of Mumbai. for the bus, so the delegates walked or rode in rickshaws to reach it. Another day, a man with an ox cart blocked the road and demanded pay- ment before he would let the bus pass. The bus driver negotiated a price of 100 rupees, or about US$2.25. Visits to the shipping container terminals revealed further concerns. Snyder says he found the port and inspection process baffling. Workers unload containers by hand for inspec- tion and then reload them by hand before sending them to their ultimate destination. The goal of this laborious process is to prevent munitions smug- gling and terrorist attacks, but it has the effect of slowing shipping to a trickle. Think about an airport secu- rity line dispute over impermissible 120 _ Scrap _ MARCH/APRIL 2007 www.scrap.org The World’s #1 Scrap Sorting & Analysis Tool items, then multiply that level of scrutiny by all the goods coming into a port of entry. At the terminals, “you • Improve productivity can see that everything that came out • Positive alloy grade identification of the container might not go back instantly into the container, because [many] containers are unloaded simultane- • Precise chemical analysis from trace ously,” Snyder says. That raises the to 100% concentrations in virtually risk of shipment contamination and any alloy material weight discrepancies. The shipping ports are not always • Nondestructive - sealed against near the factories, but the rivers are moisture and dust not always deep enough to handle containers, nor can all the roads. This means that shipments are often split up and loaded into different vehicles to reach their destination, creating another potential exposure to loss and contamination. To further complicate matters, Snyder notes that few Indian companies use dump trucks. Instead, trucks travel with five or six workers who load and unload them by hand. NEW!! on It’s cheap, given Indian wage rates, but He-purge opti ent provides true non- it’s not efficient. light elem destructive The infrastructure problems are analysis of Mg,Si,PandAl not insurmountable, though. Jesse NITON Analyzers Alexandra, owner of A&W Iron & Billerica, MA USA Metal Inc. (Kewaskum, Wis.), notes 800-875-1578 +1 978-670-7460 that despite the Taj Mahal’s remote Email: niton@ Sales & Service Worldwide location—about 175 miles south of thermofisher.com www.thermo.com/niton Delhi, which is about a four- to five- hour trip on surface roads—40,000 visitors make it there each day. “Somehow, they get everyone in and out,” he says. “It’s unbelievable.” Part of Thermo Fisher Scientific The low cost of doing business in India sadly seems to come at the expense of the country’s environment and the safety of its workers, the dele- gates say. “To me, there were more environmental concerns than even China, and I don’t know what the country is going to do to fix that,” Goodman says. Snyder says he was stunned to visit plants and see workers carrying around ladles of hot metal to pour into molds for manhole covers while wear- ing nothing but sandals and dhotis, the traditional Indian loincloths. Only one facility on the mission’s itinerary had workers wearing closed-toe shoes, www.scrap.org MARCH/APRIL 2007 _ Scrap _ 121 Past ISRI Chair Joel Denbo (left) has his palm read at one of the mission’s dinner functions. Below, ISRI President Robin overalls, and hard hats, but “we could Wiener (left) and other mission see it was a dog-and-pony show,” participants take in the sights Snyder says. “The shoes had never and give their digital cameras been worn before.” a workout at a building on the Still, he acknowledges that jobs in Taj Mahal grounds. metal-processing facilities were proba- bly better than other alternatives available to these workers, which is evidence of progress in the country. Other plants, in contrast, were as good as anything in the United States or Europe.
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