China Automobile Parts Holdings has signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysian company SRI Elastomers to build a facility in China’s Xiamen City for recycling end-of-life tyres and other processed rubber scrap into a rubber compound.
The facility will adopt SRI’s proprietary devulcanisation process and technology – claimed to be a ‘zero pollution’ approach that reuses 100% of the scrap tyre, with the material going towards the manufacture of new value-added rubber products.
According to SRI’s ceo Gopinath Sekhar, the plant will boast an initial capacity of 10 000 tonnes per year, which will be increased by adding more modules as and when necessary. ‘Our technology will allow the factory to produce in large batches,’ he adds. ‘The initial investment is estimated at Malaysian Ringgit 3 million (US$ 800 000).’