Scandinavian Enviro Systems (Enviro) is continuing its negotiations with an American, a Canadian and a Danish company to establish local plants for tyre recycling based on Enviro’s technology. The previously communicated deadline for when the agreement was to be completed has now passed, but according to the company this will not affect the outcome of the negotiations or the possibility of opening the various plants.
For over a year, Enviro has been negotiating with the Danish company WindSpace A/S, American company EE-TDF Cleveland. and Canadian company Treadcraft Limited concerning final contracts for preparing local plants for tyre recycling based on Enviro’s tyre-recycling technology. In the case of the Danish company WindSpace, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in May last year, with the intent to establish a joint venture to build a pyrolysis plant in Denmark within 18 months.
“Since then, WindSpace has signed a lease for an empty plot in Nyborg Harbour through the company established to operate the plant to be built there, Elysium A/S. They also submitted applications for both building and environmental permits. We still need to agree on the financing scheme and the details in the contract that will be prepared,” says Thomas Sörensson, CEO Enviro.
As for the negotiations with EE-TDF Cleveland, an MoU was signed in December last concerning the establishment, through a joint venture, of several plants for tyre recycling in the American market, the first of which would be established at the American company’s existing site in Texas. According to the plans originally communicated, the parties were to sign a binding contract within three months and the first project was to begin in the second quarter of this year.
With Treadcraft Limited, an initial MoU with a deadline of six months was signed at the end of June last year. This agreement was then extended by another six months in December last year when the parties also decided to investigate the possibility of establishing a joint venture. The collaboration with Treadcraft Limited pertains to the establishment of a jointly owned recycling plant in Buffalo, New York.
According to Sörensson, the fact that no final agreement has been reached before the previously communicated deadlines in both cases is not due to a lack of interest in establishing the plants.
“Since the initial contacts were signed, we have changed our strategy and business model, and we now are investing in becoming part owners in new plants so as to capitalise on the revenue streams that these generate. This means that our contract negotiations are a little more complicated, but also that we need to settle a number of financial questions before we can establish a final contract,” says Thomas Sörensson.
For the time being, Sörensson would prefer not to state any new dates for when the company believes the contracts will be ready.
“There are many aspects that have to be considered before we’re ready and we must, of course, carefully evaluate which projects provide the best long-term conditions for us and which we should therefore invest in. However, all of the parties involved are still highly interested in finalising the contracts, due in no small part to an increased environmental awareness and greater need for recycled limited resources. These are driving factors that only make our company and our technology all the more interesting and relevant,” he explained.