Ludhiana firms keep off ‘inauspicious’ WTC scrap

‘‘Our first truck came on July 18,’’ says Manu Bansal of Vimal Alloys in village Sounti near Amloh. ‘‘In fact, we were the last ones to get the consignment. Many other factories received the goods much earlier,’’ he said. According to Bansal, the deal was negotiated through an dealer named Adani Global.

The arrival of the WTC scrap has generated interest in the area. ‘‘People have been making enquiries about the scrap,’’ said Kulwant Bansal, a munshi in Punjab Steels. ‘‘It is no different from other scrap. The only peculiar feature is that since it is a structural scrap, it’s pieces are bigger,’’ Bansal added. ‘‘Some of the pieces are so big that we have to get them cut before we can actually put them in the furnace for melting,’’ said a worker in a furnace.

‘‘None of the industries knew that the scrap was from the WTC site when they made the deal,’’ said Sushil Singla, director of J.S Khalsa Steels Pvt Ltd. ‘‘It was only after the consignment came that we were told that this metal was from the WTC buildings. By then, all the industrialists had invested so much money that they had no option but to take the consignment,’’ Singla added. ‘‘Now, none of the industries is willing to buy the rest of the WTC scrap as it was associated with so many deaths,’’ he said. Singla also claimed that his factory had melted and consumed all the WTC scrap which had been further sold off.

Workers in some of the industries, requesting anonymity, reveal all of the metal is not being melted. ‘‘America’s scrap is also so good it can be used as raw material here,’’ said one of them. ‘‘You don’t need to melt it all. It doesn’t get you more profits. The big pieces can be cut, and then rolled to make iron rods that can be sold in the market,’’ he added.