ferrous metals (ferrous metal)

Ferrous metals are metals whose principal constituent is iron — chiefly mild (carbon) steel, stainless steel and cast iron. Their defining recycling property is that they are magnetic (ferromagnetic), which makes them the easiest fraction to separate mechanically. In e-waste, ferrous metal turns up as appliance chassis and casings (washing machines, refrigerators, ACs, servers, UPS frames), motor and transformer cores, fasteners, brackets and hard-disk-drive bodies. By weight ferrous metal is often the largest single material fraction in large household appliances, though it is low-value compared with the copper, aluminium and precious metals it sits alongside.

Separation is straightforward and cheap, which is why ferrous recovery underpins the economics of a shredding or dismantling line. Overband and drum magnetic separators pull ferrous fragments off a conveyor or out of a shredded mixed stream; recovery rates of 90–98% are routine. Because the separation is so reliable, ferrous metal is usually the first material pulled from a mixed shredded stream, leaving a non-ferrous and non-metallic residue for further sorting by eddy-current separator and density separation.

Commercially, ferrous scrap is a high-volume, low-margin commodity. Indian scrap steel prices typically run in the order of Rs 25,000–40,000 per tonne (i.e. roughly Rs 25–40 per kg), a fraction of copper or aluminium values, and prices track domestic steel demand and international scrap indices. Grades matter: clean heavy melting scrap and shredded ferrous fetch more than mixed or coated scrap, and stainless steel (containing nickel and chromium) is far more valuable than mild steel and should be hand-sorted out rather than dumped into a common ferrous bin.

For an Indian recycler, ferrous metal is the tonnage backbone of the business even though it is not where the headline value is. The practical guidance: invest in a reliable magnet on the line because cheap, automatic ferrous capture improves the purity and price of every downstream fraction; segregate stainless steel by hand for its premium; and treat steel mills and registered scrap aggregators as your offtake. Do not let ferrous casings carry attached copper windings or aluminium into the steel stream — those contaminate the steel grade and waste the more valuable non-ferrous metal.