New PSI requirements in India and Indonesia.

The Indian Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has announced plans to expand the country's pre-shipment inspection (PSI) requirements to include shredded scrap, reported the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) on Wednesday. The new provision was to affect shredded scrap shipments with bills of lading dated 23 March 2009 and later. While inspections are already required for un-shredded scrap metals, it was assumed until now that shredded scrap was free of hazardous content such as explosives or radioactive mterials and therefore excempt from the requirement. A new inspection regulation will also go into effect for waste shipments to Indonesia, including shipments of scrap metals and recovered paper, noted the BIR in a separate announcement. The new regulation is being imposed due to quality concerns with regard to waste shipments, according to the organisation. Unless ongoing consultations with the Indonesian government result in a liberalisation of the PSI requirement, waste shipments to arrive after 24 June 2009 will have to be monitored during the entire loading process by officially appointed inspection agents, said BIR.