India bans export of lithium-ion battery recycled material

New Delhi: The Indian government has enforced a ban on export of lithium-ion battery recycled materials, in order to ensure that critical minerals found in battery waste remain accessible for domestic processing.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has issued a notification amending the export policy for lithium-ion battery black mass from “free” to “prohibited’ with immediate effect. The notification is dated November 10.

“The export prohibition is intended to ensure that Black Mass generated in India is recycled and refined within the country,” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement.

The measure is expected to assure feedstock availability for domestic recycling and refining units, improve their capacity utilisation and encourage further investment and employment in the sector, it said.

Black mass is the dark powder left after used lithium-ion batteries or battery manufacturing scrap are shredded and larger pieces of metal and plastic are removed. Depending on the battery chemistry, refiners can recover lithium, nickel, cobalt and graphite from the powder.

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The ministry claimed that the move will “increase domestic recovery of lithium, cobalt, nickel and other critical minerals, thereby reducing import dependence and the associated foreign exchange outgo.”

“It will also strengthen supply chains for battery manufacturing, electric vehicles, energy storage and clean-energy technologies,” it said.

India has more capacity to process black mass than it generates, leaving refiners short of raw material. Recovering more of these materials at home could reduce battery makers’ reliance on imports, said Ajay Srivastava, founder, Global Trade Research Institute (GTRI).

Critical minerals are essential inputs for electric mobility, advanced chemistry cell batteries, energy storage, electronics and renewable energy. India depends substantially on imports for several of these minerals.

As per the DGFT notification, the ban covers all items under ITC (HS) code 85491400. Materials under this export code include waste and scrap of primary cells, primary batteries and electric accumulators, as well as spent cells, batteries and accumulators, which are unsorted and do not contain lead, cadmium or mercury.

“Keeping these materials within India can accelerate recycling, enable the recovery of valuable raw materials and strengthen the resilience of local supply chains,” Uditanshu Agarwal, Director of an electronic manufacturing firm Staunch Electronics.