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It is only not the Indian victims of September 11th, but the nearly 50,000 tons of steel scrap from the destroyed World Trade Center (WTC), now in India, that has people worried.
Feeling that the scrap from the WTC is jinxed, mill owners, steel contractors and retail manufacturers are refusing to buy it from importers. The bulk of the steel debris from the New York tragedy still lies in warehouses across India.
The India Steel Alliance, an industry lobby of steel-makers, estimates that since January, scrap processing companies across Indiafrom Coimbatore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Ludhianahave imported nearly 50,000 tons of the WTC steel wreckage.
We are told many construction companies in the country have refused to buy the scrap. It could be a fear of bad luck of being associated with a major tragedy that is putting off people, K. Muralidharan, an advisor to the Alliance told India Abroad.
There could be other reasons, too. First-of-all, scrap steel from New York is not first-grade quality. Secondly, construction companies across India have put in place very strict guidelines on the quality of steel, especially since the Gujarat earthquake, said Muralidharan, who found it upsetting that the Indian government had permitted the import of WTC scrap in the first place.
Alex Pereira, managing director of Galaxy Constructions in Coimbatore, bought a small quantity of steel scrap from an importer in Chennai. But we found the WTC scrap steel was not of good quality. Secondly, we were suspicious it could contain hazardous elements, so we sent it back to the importer.
Environmentalists in India have warned that the scrap contains cancer-causing asbestos and other hazardous elements such as mercury, dioxins, furans and poly-chlorinated biphenyls.
Admitting the scrap is not moving in the market as expected, Shashi Kumar, managing director of Sabari Exim Private Ltd. in Chennaithe first company to import the WTC steel from a New York-based firm for $120 per tonsaid it was the superstitious belief of people that is preventing companies from buying the product.
Kumars company bought 10,000 tons of mangled WTC scrap, and a company executive admitted that most of it lies unsold. We have suffered a huge loss by importing the steel, he said.
Most firms that imported the steel from New York have a similar tale. We have refused to take a large order of secondary steel from various scrap processing companies who imported the WTC steel, since there is no information on its quality, said Satya Gopal, a Chennai mechanical engineer working with Skyline Steel Builders.
Also, major steel companies, like Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India and Essar, petitioned the government to ban the import of scrap steel because it would cut into the demand for domestic production.
Environmental activists allege that the Indian government has been silent on the issue of importing hazardous wastes like WTC scrap. According to Greenpeace Indias toxics campaigner, Manu Gopalan, the United States tops in exporting hazardous wastes to India.
Indian importers are unscrupulously importing hazardous wastes like scrap steel, zinc ash and other toxic and lead-bearing materials into the country, flouting all norms and health concerns. The Indian government can prevent such imports under the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes. But our government refuses to open its eyes, Gopalan told India Abroad.
According to Greenpeace, the WTC wreckage cannot be treated as ordinary steel scrap because everything in the Twin Towers, including the mercury-containing tube lights, the carcinogenic asbestos insulation, PVC articles and computers were incinerated in the attacks.
After the first WTC shipment reached India, Greenpeace and other environmentalists wrote to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi to stop the export of WTC wastes and scrap to other countries.
But the U.S. administration and the Indian government did not care to act on our request. Now we want to know what the Indian government plans to do with the unsold WTC scrap, said Marxist leader Muthuraman Kumaran.
Feeling that the scrap from the WTC is jinxed, mill owners, steel contractors and retail manufacturers are refusing to buy it from importers. The bulk of the steel debris from the New York tragedy still lies in warehouses across India.
The India Steel Alliance, an industry lobby of steel-makers, estimates that since January, scrap processing companies across Indiafrom Coimbatore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Ludhianahave imported nearly 50,000 tons of the WTC steel wreckage.
We are told many construction companies in the country have refused to buy the scrap. It could be a fear of bad luck of being associated with a major tragedy that is putting off people, K. Muralidharan, an advisor to the Alliance told India Abroad.
There could be other reasons, too. First-of-all, scrap steel from New York is not first-grade quality. Secondly, construction companies across India have put in place very strict guidelines on the quality of steel, especially since the Gujarat earthquake, said Muralidharan, who found it upsetting that the Indian government had permitted the import of WTC scrap in the first place.
Alex Pereira, managing director of Galaxy Constructions in Coimbatore, bought a small quantity of steel scrap from an importer in Chennai. But we found the WTC scrap steel was not of good quality. Secondly, we were suspicious it could contain hazardous elements, so we sent it back to the importer.
Environmentalists in India have warned that the scrap contains cancer-causing asbestos and other hazardous elements such as mercury, dioxins, furans and poly-chlorinated biphenyls.
Admitting the scrap is not moving in the market as expected, Shashi Kumar, managing director of Sabari Exim Private Ltd. in Chennaithe first company to import the WTC steel from a New York-based firm for $120 per tonsaid it was the superstitious belief of people that is preventing companies from buying the product.
Kumars company bought 10,000 tons of mangled WTC scrap, and a company executive admitted that most of it lies unsold. We have suffered a huge loss by importing the steel, he said.
Most firms that imported the steel from New York have a similar tale. We have refused to take a large order of secondary steel from various scrap processing companies who imported the WTC steel, since there is no information on its quality, said Satya Gopal, a Chennai mechanical engineer working with Skyline Steel Builders.
Also, major steel companies, like Tata Steel, Steel Authority of India and Essar, petitioned the government to ban the import of scrap steel because it would cut into the demand for domestic production.
Environmental activists allege that the Indian government has been silent on the issue of importing hazardous wastes like WTC scrap. According to Greenpeace Indias toxics campaigner, Manu Gopalan, the United States tops in exporting hazardous wastes to India.
Indian importers are unscrupulously importing hazardous wastes like scrap steel, zinc ash and other toxic and lead-bearing materials into the country, flouting all norms and health concerns. The Indian government can prevent such imports under the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes. But our government refuses to open its eyes, Gopalan told India Abroad.
According to Greenpeace, the WTC wreckage cannot be treated as ordinary steel scrap because everything in the Twin Towers, including the mercury-containing tube lights, the carcinogenic asbestos insulation, PVC articles and computers were incinerated in the attacks.
After the first WTC shipment reached India, Greenpeace and other environmentalists wrote to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi to stop the export of WTC wastes and scrap to other countries.
But the U.S. administration and the Indian government did not care to act on our request. Now we want to know what the Indian government plans to do with the unsold WTC scrap, said Marxist leader Muthuraman Kumaran.