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by Carly Fields, Lloyd's List

An increased awareness about the need for regulations combined with cash buyers that have adopted a more serious guise has already helped to push the Indian demolition market to the next stage of development.

Scrap brokers have noticed that respected cash buyers are staying put in the Indian market and that those with more unreliable reputations have been wilting away in this more astute Indian market.

A London demolition broker said: "The way things are going, it can only be a couple of years before India catches up with the regulated Chinese scrap market.

"There's a lot of changes going on, it will be an interesting market to work in over the next two years."

Added to this, cash buyers have wised up to the fact that sales frequently fail on subjects and are paying more attention to the finer details from the birth of a sale to avoid this happening.

A broker said: "The key to the new Indian market is description. Cash buyers are starting to demand better specifications from the start, so there's less scope for error."

Another healthy trend assisting the maturing of the Indian scrap yards is that of amalgamation and consolidation, pushing the less serious buyers out of the running.

The very real moves to regulate Indian breakers yards will arguably be the most important factor in bringing this popular scrapping nation to maturity.

Green activist groups made the unregulated working practises of Indian demolition yards the focus of a millennium clampdown.

Already Gujarat officials, in consultation with Greenpeace, have begun a series of programmes to improve living standards of workers around scrap yards.

However, the proposed introduction of stricter health and safety regulations in India was vetoed by Alang workers, as they threatened strike action unless the regulations were lifted.

For at least the next month, the Indian demolition market will be free from the imposition of these regulations.

Officials reached an agreement last month that business should continue unchanged for the next two months.

After this deadline the situation will be up for review, putting the cat among the pigeons in Indian scrapyards again.