Taiwan Cement eyeing Chinese waste recycling market



Taiwan Cement Corp. on Tuesday said it aims to tap into China’s booming waste recycling market through a strategic alliance with Beijing Orient Landscape & Environment Co Ltd.

The company said it has continued to develop technologies to burn garbage — such as tires, plastics and petrochemical wastes — in cement kilns as alternative fuels to replace coal.

Cement kilns are capable of turning hazardous solid waste into a clean energy resource, as cement production usually requires temperatures of up to 1,600°C, the company said.

There is still room for the development of such solutions in the Chinese market, chairman Nelson Chang said, adding that the method has been adopted by developed countries to help reduce industrial waste.

TCC International Holdings Ltd, a Taiwan Cement subsidiary, is to select one of its plants in China as the pilot site for the cement kiln project, the company said in a statement.

Taiwan Cement is to bid on projects in China in cooperation with Beijing Orient, a listed Chinese waste management service provider with a market capitalization of more than 50 billion yuan (US$7.91 billion).

The company has set a long-term capacity target of processing 10 million tonnes of toxic waste per year, which is expected to bring a profit of more than NT$20 billion (US$688 million), the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported this week.

The company said its plant in Guizhou, China, is able to process 200 tonnes of hazardous household waste per day.

Exploring opportunities in China’s waste recycling market is in line with the company’s long-term goal of transforming itself from a traditional cement maker into a “green” service provider.

To strengthen competitiveness in the “green” energy sector, the company last month injected nearly NT$22.7 billion in fresh capital into three energy-related subsidiaries, company filings showed.

Prior to the capital injection, the company announced in November last year that it is to spend NT$980 million on developing photovoltaic systems and onshore wind farms at the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park, which are expected to generate 20 megawatts of electricity.

Source: TAIPEI TIMES