← Business Models: Industry Specific (Industrials & Materials) (all topics)
Backward integration - copper recycling
What it is
Sourcing metal from scrap rather than buying primary cathode - collecting, sorting and refining copper scrap into usable feedstock in-house. Copper recycles indefinitely without loss of properties, so secondary metal is a true substitute
Scrap already supplies an estimated 20-25% of Indian copper, and EPR rules with rising recycled-content obligations are formalising a historically informal trade
Impact on industries
- The answer to a genuine supply gap - domestic refining capacity fell sharply after a major smelter closure, leaving India importing refined copper at scale
- Widens the conversion spread by replacing cathode at import parity with scrap bought at a discount, so it converts a pass-through cost into a margin opportunity
- EPR certificates and recycled-content quotas turn compliance into demand, favouring formal recyclers over the informal yards that dominated
- Scrap is fragmented and variable in quality, so feedstock security is harder to guarantee than a cathode contract