Marubeni eyes 'tire recycling supply chain' businesses in Japan, Southeast Asia

Samut Prakan, Thailand – Japanese trading major Marubeni Corp. is planning to develop a business model for tire recycling supply chains in Japan, Southeast Asia and other countries around the world.

As a first step, the group has made an undisclosed investment in Thai end-of-life tire (ELT) pyrolysis company 'Green Rubber Energy' (GRE) to produce recovered carbon black (rCB) and tire pyrolysis oil (TPO) in Thailand.

In a statement 5 Sept, Marubeni said that GRE has been working for over a decade on developing its technology and has achieved “stable production” of rCB that can be used for tire applications.

By investing in the Samut Prakan-based business, Marubeni said it aimed to build “a tire recycling supply chain in Thailand, from the collection of ELTs to the production and sale of recycled materials.

Using its car maintenance subsidiary B-Quik Co., Marubeni said it will supply collected ELTs to GRE.

From there, it will aim to expand the range of uses for rCB by purifying the materials using technology from Germany’s RCB Nanotechnologies GmbH, in which Marubeni has invested recently. (ERJ report)

Marubeni Techno Rubber Co., which specialises in rubber raw materials, will then aim to expand the sales of rCB and TPO produced by GRE.

Going forward, the Tokyo-based group said it aimed to expand the business as “a model case” to develop tire recycling businesses elsewhere.

These, it said, include Japan, Southeast Asia, and other countries around the world.