Export curbs on secondary raw materials can protect domestic value addition but may distort markets. Critically analyse.

Secondary raw materials are inputs recovered from waste rather than mines. The DGFT's recent bar on exporting battery scrap containing lithium-ion black mass (a powder holding lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite) tests this trade-off [1]. The curb is right in aim but early in timing.

Protecting domestic value addition

• Critical-mineral security: black mass is an "urban mine" of minerals vital for EVs and energy storage. If India exports it, it buys the same minerals back later as costly imported cells [1].
• Feedstock assurance: the Commerce Ministry expects assured supply to raise refiners' capacity utilisation, investment and jobs [1].
• Policy coherence: the ₹1,500 crore Critical Mineral Recycling Incentive Scheme targets 270 kt/year of recycling capacity and about ₹8,000 crore of investment. These plants need secure input [2].
• Circular economy: the curb complements EPR under the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022, which require collection, recycling and reuse of recovered material [3].

Distorting markets

• Capacity mismatch: the Ministry of Mines admits domestic processing capacity is limited [2]. The 58 eligible firms (about 850 KTPA pledged) are still at the execution stage [4], so stocks may pile up.
• Price suppression: a captive market lowers domestic prices. Value shifts from collectors to refiners, and the incentive to collect weakens.
• Squeezing first-link firms: the scheme excludes firms that only produce black mass [2]. With exports also barred, small shredders face distress sales and monopsony buyers.
• Leakage: wider price gaps encourage mis-declared shipments and informal dismantling outside the formal system.
• Supply ceiling: a border curb does not increase collection. That depends on credible EPR certificates traded on the CPCB portal [3].

Assessment and way forward The gains are structural and the distortions mostly transitional, because the curb came before the refineries:

• Move from "prohibited" to "restricted" (licensed) exports under the Foreign Trade Policy, with a sunset review.
• Release scheme funds early, tied to milestones [4].
• Create supply contracts that link shredders to refiners, and audit EPR certificates.

Export curbs work when they protect value addition a country can actually deliver. A calibrated, time-bound regime alongside faster refinery build-out would make black mass a pillar of Aatmanirbhar critical-mineral supply and advance SDG 12, without penalising collectors at the base of the chain.