Umm Al Quwain, UAE-based Cosmos Green plans to set up the world’s first metal scrap exchange by the end of 2019, with warehouses in port cities such as Mumbai, Chennai and Mundra (Gujarat) and three inland container depots in Delhi-NCR.

It will aim to meet the recycling demand of metal manufacturers domestically and overseas, and to tap into the $500-billion global metal recycling business, which is growing at a rate of 4.5 per cent a year.

“For this purpose, we have lined up a total investment of $120 million (₹836 crore) in four phases of $30 million each over the next three years,” Rajat Kapur, founder and CEO of Cosmos Green, told BusinessLine . “We plan to raise and invest about $30 million by the year-end as part of our long-term plan to invest $120 million.”

The physical warehouses in the port cities will facilitate the import of metal scrap and export of recycled metal, he said.

Cosmos Green, established in 2015 as a start-up, entered India this January with an investment of $3 million. Its three scrap processing units in the NCR are spread across 50,000 sq ft with a capacity to handle about 5,000 tonnes per month. It plans to double the capacity of these units with an investment of $10 million.

Blockchain technology

The company says it will be backed by blockchain technology and the entire supply chain will be 100 per cent transparent, providing traceability and authentication to end-users after recycling. Some of the biggest plants globally are dependent on recycled metal scrap.

Hazardous material

One of the challenges for recyclers is to segregate hazardous material and ensure there is no radioactive material in the scrap. This can only be handled efficiently in an organised environment, according to Cosmos. At present, the metal recycling business is dominated by the unorganised sector.

Recycling not only helps save precious natural resources but also energy, said Kapur. Right now, only about 20 per cent of the metal used is recycled, wasting a significant amount of natural resource.

The company processes and recycles all kinds of metal scrap from across the world. It has strategic partnerships with scrap consumers in India as well as shredders in Europe and the US.

Kapur said Cosmos hopes to emerge as a market leader in metal scrap processing, containerised marine shipments, pre-shipment and post-shipment inspections and cross-border fund transfers in this business.

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