Berlin. ALBA Group has delineated its strategy within the investor recruitment drive to step up the expansion of its China business and domestic market growth. “We want to strengthen our key growth areas of China and the ‘4 R’s – reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink’ – with additional equity investors,” said Dr Axel Schweitzer, CEO of ALBA Group plc & Co. KG. Negotiations with Asian partners have shown that it makes sense to focus their investment on China.
Under the “China Growth” strategy launched by ALBA Group around six months ago as part of its investor recruitment drive, a partner is to be selected for the China business. "We have made good progress and we are already at an advanced stage in talks. As announced, the contract signing will be in the first half of this year,” Schweitzer said. The focus here is on selected technology areas such as automotive and electronic waste recycling, where ALBA’s leading expertise will be put to work in additional facilities in China.
To further strengthen home market activities, the ALBA Group is going to bring on board a strong investment partner in its service business. Capabilities in this sector include take-back systems for sales and transport packaging, waste avoidance and product recycling solutions, and facility management.
Meanwhile, the ALBA Group’s activities in China continue to grow: New Year’s Eve saw the signing of a 30-year contract for the management of municipal solid waste (365,000 tons a year) in the city of Jieyang. Jieyang is also going to be home to the first of eight currently planned green fuel facilities. Once hazardous materials have been separated out and recyclables extracted, waste is converted here into pellets that power stations can use in place of fossil fuels. Construction of the first green fuel facility is planned to begin in summer 2016.
On 21 January, the ground-breaking ceremony took place in Hong Kong for the most advanced waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) treatment and recycling facility in Southeast Asia. For ten years from when the facility comes into operation, ALBA will perform collection and recycling of what will mostly be large household appliances such as refrigerators, air conditioners, televisions, washing machines and computers.
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