June 20 (SeeNews) - Romanian plastic products manufacturer TeraPlast Group [BSE:TRP] has invested 3.5 million euro ($4.04 million) in the transformation of a raw materials storehouse into a PVC waste collection and recycling station, the company said on Wednesday.
The investment includes recycling lines, production and storage facilities, as well as related buildings, TeraPlast said in a statement.
PVC, also known as vinyl, is an extremely durable thermoplastic material, and products made from it have an average life span of 60 years.
The section is equipped with the most modern cleaning and sorting technologies purchased from European market leaders, it added.
The recycling station has a production capacity of 12,000 tonnes per year, which places the company among the top 10 recyclers in Europe, while at the national level it is the largest rigid PVC recycler.
"In the context of environmental problems and of the need for recycling at the national level, generated by the fact that Romania is the last in the EU when it comes to recycling, TeraPlast Group comes with a solution for the efficient management of rigid PVC waste," TeraPlast Group deputy general manager, Alexandru Stanean, said.
According to TeraPlast, the rigid PVC waste market volume in Europe totalled 420,000 tonnes in 2017. The largest recycling companies in Europe are based in Germany, the UK and France, with a combined market share of 65%. At the same time, the top 10 recyclers in Europe process about 56% of the waste in this geographical area.
TeraPlast posted a loss of 1.07 million lei ($265,047/ 220,000 euro) in the first quarter, compared to a net profit of 1.65 million lei in the same period of 2017.
TeraPlast's turnover almost doubled year-on-year to 131 million lei in January- March.The main contributors to this increase were the businesses that joined the group's portfolio in 2017: Depaco - Wetterbest, the sandwich panel factory in Serbia and the Politub business.
TerapPlast shares traded 3.05% lower at 0.35 lei on the Bucharest Stock Exchange as of 0926 CET on Wednesday.
(1 euro=4.6663 lei)