18 May 2020
New facility to be located in Zaozhuang, where Chinese partner Star Smith is headquartered
Zaozhuang, Shandong – Switzerland’s Tyre Recycling Solutions (TRS) signed a memorandum of understanding on 11 May with China’s Star Smith Metal Products for the construction of a new end-of-life tire recycling plant.
The facility will be located in Zaozhuang, Shandong province, where Star Smith is headquartered, and will involve a $30-million (€28 million) investment.
The unit is designed to recover 60 kilotonne of high-performance rubber powder annually from scrap tires.
The two parties will set up joint venture Star TRS for the new project, which will employ TRS’ water pulse process to produce rubber powder under its trademark TyreXol.
“We haven’t been able to sit down with TRS due to the [Covid-19] pandemic. Neither have we decided on more details such as the time for groundbreaking,” Star Smith told ERJ.
TRS was founded in 2013 and has commercialised the use of recycled rubber powder in an array of applications such as in automotive, footwear and 3D printing with its in-housing compounding technology.
Star Smith, also known as SDS, is a leading Chinese glued steel fibre makers with 60 kilotonnes annual capacity.
SDS expects to use steel chords recovered from scrap tires in its existing business, the company told ERJ.
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