MOSCOW (MRC) -- More Chinese investors are targeting central Serbia in a new bid to establish a plant to produce recycled polymer granules from waste plastics, said Sustainableplastics.
Last month, the Chinese company Zhong Xiao Nengyuan Zhi signed an agreement with the municipal council of Cuprija to lease a local industrial site for the initial phase of a EUR2m polymers project.
The firm, which will take on a 50-strong workforce at the start, said it plans to expand the operation at a later stage hiring a further 150 employees.
Cuprija was earlier targeted by other investors linked with China’s Taihe Group who proposed to spend €12m on a scheme to build four plastic waste recycling plants. These would provide a polymer raw material base and semi finished products to feed a planned cluster of plastics processing enterprises.
Early in 2018, the representatives of the Taihe-controlled Serbia-based company Blue Sky Europe International Industry & Trade Technology d.o.o. signed a memorandum of understanding for the project with Cuprija’s mayor Ninoslav Eric.
That Chinese company, understood to be 75% controlled by Taihe Group, said it would create as many as 500 jobs in the initial phase of its project development, with the first stage expected to be completed in 2019.
The latest Cuprija investment scheme was unveiled last month (Sept) when Quang Xi He, chief executive officer of the Chinese firm Zhong Xiao Nengyuan Zhi signed a concession agreement with the town’s mayor. This allowed his company to lease the former local factory site of Mladost, a producer of paper and cardboard.
At the 1,500m2 factory site, the Chinese investors intend to install initially a number of lines for producing polymer granules. Later, the company aims to construct a new production hall and create more than 100 new jobs in the new industrial zone, developed specifically to attract entrepreneurs from China.
As MRC informed earlier, China’s polyolefin suppliers have cut their post-holiday production due to logistics restrictions amid authorities’ efforts to contain the coronavirus outbreak. Domestic inventories are high as the plants did not stop production during the Lunar New Year holiday period, which started on 24 January, with most storage warehouses now full.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
MRC