18-8 austenitic stainless (304/316 and more), min ~7% Ni, 16% Cr. Nickel content drives value — the benchmark stainless trade grade.

ISRI Reference Grade: Sabot (Clean 300-series stainless solid scrap, 18-8 type and related)

Grade Composition and Specification

The 300 series is the most widely used family of austenitic stainless steels globally, characterised by an 18% chromium – 8% nickel base composition (hence the trade name “18-8”), with numerous sub-grades offering variations in molybdenum, titanium, niobium, and carbon content for specific application requirements. The most common grades include: 304 (the universal “food-grade” stainless, 18% Cr, 8% Ni), 304L (low-carbon variant for welded construction), 316 (18% Cr, 10% Ni, 2–3% Mo — marine and chemical grade), 316L (low-carbon 316 for critical welding), 321 (Ti-stabilised), 347 (Nb-stabilised), and 310S (high-temperature grade). The ISRI grade Sabot covers clean 18-8 type stainless clips and solids — clippings, punchings, formed sheet, tube, and bar offcuts — meeting minimum chemistry requirements: typically minimum 7% nickel and 16% chromium by spectrometric assay, with maximum allowances for molybdenum, copper, phosphorus, and sulphur content. Sabot is the benchmark “standard” stainless scrap grade for international trade. Higher-molybdenum grades (316-family) may be segregated and traded separately at a premium due to the nickel and molybdenum value uplift.

Why Nickel Content Is the Primary Value Driver

In 300-series stainless scrap, nickel content is the primary commercial value driver, since nickel is the most expensive alloying element in stainless steel (typically 65–75% of the alloying cost of a 304 heat). The LME nickel price therefore has the largest single influence on 300-series stainless scrap pricing, with chromium content (ferrochrome) as the secondary pricing component. A Sabot lot assaying 8.5% Ni will command a meaningfully higher price than one assaying 7.1% Ni, and the nickel assay of each lot is a primary due-diligence requirement for buyers.

Who Uses SS 300 Series Scrap

Primary stainless steel producers using AOD or VOD refining (Jindal Stainless, the world’s second-largest integrated stainless steel producer, based in Hisar, Haryana, and Odisha; Chromeni Steels; Venus Wires; Tubacex India for welded tube) are the largest consumers of 300-series stainless scrap. Stainless steel tube and pipe manufacturers producing for oil & gas, chemical process, pharmaceutical, and food industry applications consume 316 and 316L scrap as a key charge component for chemistry control. Precision investment casters and forging operations producing stainless components for aerospace, defence, and chemical process equipment use 300-series scrap or secondary stainless bar as a charge material. Stainless steel kitchen equipment, food processing machinery, pharmaceutical manufacturing equipment, and architectural hardware manufacturers — all significant sectors in India’s growing industrial base — generate 300-series stainless scrap that flows to secondary melters and back to primary stainless producers.