China's recycler Chiho in JV with Thai, Japanese partners

Chiho Environmental

22/11/2019 05:31

BEIJING, Nov 22 (Reuters) - China's Chiho Environmental
Group  0976.HK , one of the largest scrap metal recycling firms
in the country, will set up a joint venture (JV) in Thailand
with local and Japanese counterparts, the company said in a
statement on Friday.
    Hidaka Yookoo Enterprises Co, the largest steel raw material
manufacturer in Thailand, and Suzuki Shokai Co, a leading
resources recycling company in Japan, will partner with Chiho to
set up the JV, which will primarily focus in motor dismantling.
    Chiho did not reveal details of the JV's equity structure.
    Plans to set up the new firm has come up following China's
tightening regulation on metal scrap imports, which accounted
for around 10% of the country's total copper consumption last
year, amid the war against pollution, triggering fears of a
shortage of raw materials among metal refiners.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N23V2W9
    China's crackdown has seen a flurry of Chinese-owned
recycling plants sprout up overseas, especially in Southeast
Asia, with the aim of processing the material into a form that
can still enter China.
    "Instead of a passive wait-and-see approach to this issue,
we proactively establish JV together...to jointly solve the
global environmental problem...and thus respond to the
environmental changes of resources," said Tsukasa Komatani,
president of Suzuki Shokai in the statement.
    Beijing aims to reduce imports of solid waste to zero by
end-2020.
    After China's ban on solid waste imports, the Philippines,
Malaysia and Indonesia have sent garbage back to the countries,
such as Canada and the United States, where it came
from. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N23O2KH urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2341KQ

 (Reporting by Muyu Xu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Shailesh
Kuber)
 ((muyu.xu@thomsonreuters.com; +86 10 56692117;))