Recycling units to lose Rs 22,000 cr as demurrage and detention costs soar

Shipping lines and container freight stations ignore official directives calling for a waiver on these charges

The metal recycling industry is set to lose Rs 22,000 crore to shipping companies and container freight stations (CFS), as the latter have not waived demurrage/detention charges during the nationwide lockdown period.

Due to countrywide lockdown that started from March 25 initially for three weeks and was further extended till May 3, almost all operations in factories came to halt. A large number of Indian buyers had imported scrap (shipped in containers) as raw material and these containers had started piling up at Indian ports.

As per industry estimates, more than 250,000 containers with various metallic scrap have been stuck