Chinese investors have agreed to commit €12 million to build four plastics recycling plants in central Serbia, comprising the first phase of a wider project to set up a local plastics processing cluster.
Representatives of Blue Sky Europe International Industry and Trade Technology d.o.o. Ćuprija, a Chinese-owned Serbia-based company, signed a memorandum of understanding on the plan with the mayor of the town of Ćuprija Ninoslav Erić last month.
The Chinese firm, 75 percent majority controlled by the China industrial group Taihe Group Ltd., aims to employ 500 workers in the initial development stage on an existing industrial zone. Phase one should be completed in 2019, according to Serbian news portals.
“This is the first phase, in which the four new plants should open, after which we will work on a further project of an industrial park,” explained Ćuprija's mayor.
The four waste recycling plants, turning out plastics granule, are set to feed the Serbian cluster growing on the new adjacent industrial zone at Ćuprija. This 1,000-acre site will accommodate a number of plastics processors fed by the recycling units.
From next year, the industrial park will be occupied by plastic products manufacturers which will take advantage of locally available semi-finished products, ideal logistics and infrastructure, along with the recyclate, according to Ćuprija's mayor Ninoslav Erić,
Taihe Group is understood to own the Serbian Blue Sky Europe firm jointly with a private Chinese shareholder Guangguo Zhou who holds the remaining share of the business.