Your carbide has a number in Haridwar.
We show you how we get it.
Haridwar's SIDCUL estate and BHEL's heavy-engineering complex anchor a smaller but genuine carbide and HSS base. Most buyers quote a flat rate off a WhatsApp photo. We weigh it in front of you, grade it by carbide content, and show the math before you agree to sell.
What actually sets your price
Not a slogan — the three variables that move the number up or down before we ever quote you one.
Solid vs. mixed lots
An indexable insert or solid forming punch is close to pure tungsten carbide and prices near the top of the range. Grinding sludge and mixed floor-sweep from a tool room run lower — we price that as its own lot rather than blending it into your clean material's rate.
The metal holding it together
Cutting-grade carbide typically carries 6–12% cobalt as a binder. Cobalt trades on its own market, so the binder ratio genuinely changes what a lot is worth — a forging die doesn't price the same as a fine finishing insert.
Steel shanks, dies and mountings
Brazed tooling — a carbide tip fixed to a steel shank, die body or holder — gets weighed whole, then separated on-site so the recoverable carbide is priced on its own. We show that split before you agree to a number.
Why the rate changes week to week
Tungsten carbide isn't priced off a fixed scrap-yard rate card. The tungsten in your inserts and dies trades on its own international market, tracked through tungsten concentrate and APT (ammonium paratungstate) prices — the same benchmarks WolfTrack's Indian Tungsten Transaction Price Index follows every week. We reassess our buying rate against that market, not against what a scrap yard down the road is offering.
Know what's in your bin before you WhatsApp
Carbide behaves differently from ordinary steel scrap — here's what to look for, and the common forms we buy.
| Typical density | ~14–15 g/cm³ |
| Feel | Heavier than its size suggests |
| Magnetic response | Weak to slight |
| Colour | Grey to grey-black, matte |
| Common binder | Cobalt, ~6–12% by grade |
- Indexable inserts & tipsHighest per-kg value in a mixed lot.
- Solid carbide rods, drills & end millsFull-carbide, no separation needed.
- Forging & press-tool diesCarbide-tipped punches from BHEL's ancillary vendor units, typically brazed — separated on-site.
- Brazed tool bits & die insertsSeparated on-site before either portion is weighed.
HSS (High Speed Steel) tool scrap
Not everything worn out in your tool room is carbide. High Speed Steel tooling is a different alloy family entirely — fully magnetic, no tungsten-carbide/cobalt binder — and it's priced against its own tool-steel and alloy content, not the tungsten carbide rate. We buy both, graded and priced separately on the same visit.
- M2General-purpose HSS — drills, taps, milling cutters.
- M35Cobalt-enhanced (~5% Co) for tougher jobs.
- M42High-cobalt (~8% Co), heat resistant.
- T15Tungsten-type, high vanadium, heavy-duty broaches.
- Drill bits, taps & reamersBroken or worn-out sets — most common lot.
- Milling cutters & hobsSolid HSS or carbide-tipped — sorted and priced.
- Lathe & planer tool bitsSolid HSS blanks, ground or unground.
A quick way to tell them apart before you WhatsApp: HSS responds strongly to a magnet and sounds like ordinary steel when tapped; carbide is only weakly magnetic and feels noticeably heavier for its size, with a duller, denser tap. Bring both — we sort and price each on-site.
Where we pick up in Haridwar, and why
Haridwar's carbide/HSS base is smaller and more spread out than Kanpur or the Chandigarh tricity — it rides mainly on BHEL's ancillary ecosystem and the wider SIDCUL auto-ancillary estate rather than a dense, dedicated tool-and-die cluster. We're upfront about that: steady, lower-volume, higher-value-per-lot pickups rather than high-frequency ones.
BHEL's Haridwar unit runs two large plants here — the Heavy Electrical Equipment Plant (turbines, turbo-generators, heat exchangers) and the Central Foundry Forge Plant (large steel castings and forgings). Heavy-tonnage precision machining of turbine components and forging dies consumes large carbide inserts and HSS tooling — high value per pickup, accessed through BHEL's ancillary vendor base rather than the plant directly.
A small dedicated vendor estate (about 16 acres) immediately west of Shivalik Nagar, purpose-built to house contract machining and fabrication units supplying BHEL — including precision machine shops and specialised manufacturers. Exactly the contract-machining profile that throws off carbide inserts and HSS turnings, though the estate is genuinely small in unit count.
Uttarakhand's largest estate here spans roughly 1,700 acres with over 500 registered units, anchored by Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, Havells and Hindustan Unilever. Auto-ancillary and electrical-equipment units run CNC turning, milling and press-tool operations — real volume exists, but spread thin across a mostly FMCG/auto-assembly estate.
An older estate of about 132 acres with roughly 120 units, mixing general manufacturing with some light engineering and fabrication. Carbide/HSS generation here is incidental to job-work machining rather than a defined specialty.
Haridwar's original pre-SIDCUL industrial pocket along the Jwalapur–Kankhal belt, home to smaller general engineering works and job-shop workshops. Volume per pickup is low and irregular, but a legitimate source of tool-room and lathe-shop scrap.
Why sell here instead of shipping it out of Haridwar
Carbide scrap is dense and low-volume for its value, which makes an out-of-town dealer's quoted rate look tempting on paper. In practice, three things usually erase that difference: transport cost and risk on a dense material that's easy to shortweight in transit, a re-weighing dispute at the far end with no way to verify it, and the days lost waiting on payment. Weighed and paid on your premises removes all three.
Four steps, one visit
Before you WhatsApp
What's the minimum quantity you buy in Haridwar?
50 kg minimum for pickup in Haridwar. Smaller lots are best shipped directly — ask us on WhatsApp for the courier option.
How is the rate decided on the day?
Off the current tungsten/cobalt market plus your lot's actual grade — weighed and shown to you before you agree, not a flat number quoted off a photo.
Do you pick up, or do I need to ship it?
Free pickup for lots at or above the 50 kg minimum anywhere in Haridwar. Below that, courier to us directly — ask on WhatsApp for the easiest way.
WolfTrack — India's tungsten price desk
If you're buying or trading carbide and tungsten scrap in volume rather than selling it off once, WolfTrack's weekly brief and the Indian Tungsten Transaction Price Index track the market before it moves. Rs 499 per month.
See this week's brief →Carbide Scrap Buyers — Haridwar · Prices are indicative and confirmed on weighing — WhatsApp for today's rate.