GreenFiber International from Buzau invests 35 million EUR to open its third plant for synthetic recycled fibers in Urziceni

Bucharest, July 2016 - GreenFiber International, part of Green Group, the largest integrated recycling park in South-Eastern Europe, invests 35 million EUR from private funds, in its third production plant for synthetic fibers made out of 100% recycled PET, to become the biggest European producer on this segment.

With a total production capacity of 30,000 tons/year of synthetic, the new plant will be located in Urziceni, following the buying of ROFEP property. The new plant is estimated to be operational in the first quarter of 2017.

Furthermore, the company is planning a new investment to double the Urziceni capacity by 2018. Adding also Buzau and Iasi, the national production capacity of GreenFiber will be 113,000 tons/year in the final stage of development.

The new Urziceni plant will have continuous activity throughout the year, organized in two shifts, creating new jobs for Urziceni residents and those from neighbor cities. At the end of the project, the total number of GreenFiber employees in Romania will exceed 1000.

While the demand from our clients for regenerated fibers was rising, such investment was made possible only following last year’s important boost of the operations in the upstream supply chain. In 2013 – 2015, we invested 23 million EUR, part of which was to create a functional collection infrastructure in Romania and grow the clean PET collection volumes, while the other was to increase the operational capacities for the lines processing PET bottles prior to reaching our GreenFiber factories, stated Clement Hung, CEO of Green Group companies.

Within the production process in GreenFiber, PET flakes resulted from the sorting, crushing and washing of PET bottles, are melted into thin threads and transformed into synthetic fibers, an output resembling natural wool. For the new production sites to work at full capacity, 162,000 tons/year of PET bottles will have to be processed, which is more than the total amount of PET put annually on the Romanian market.
GreenFiber is well equipped to face strong competition from long established producers, mostly from Asia, but in order to stay competitive we need to secure premium quality of fiber, made out of clean PET bottles. With last year’s investment in SIGUREC collection infrastructure, we now have 161 fixed and mobile collection points in 36 cities in Romania and we see a 10% monthly increase in collection.

However, considering the poor collection infrastructure in Romania and insufficient quantities reaching GreenFiber, we are already importing 55% of resources from European markets, and we are taking in consideration to invest in Middle Eastern countries in order to bridge the gap of the supply from Europe, added Mr Hung.

GreenFiber products are sold primarily on external markets, such as Germany, Italy, Denmark, Czech Republic, Belgium, Slovenia, Turkey and Hungary. Important clients include companies in the automotive industry, using fibers for textile and filtration components, companies in the hygienic industry, for tissues or baby diapers filling as well as companies in the household & furnishings, for pillows or couches fillings. Other common applications for fibers are geotextile membranes, roofing or air filtration systems.   
GreenFiber has a long and insightful history on the Romanian market. First plant was launched in 2005 in Buzau, followed by another one in Iasi, in 2007, which was built on the site of the old Terom Iasi, once one of the biggest European virgin fibers producers. GreenFiber, the new industry that was formed in place of Terom has ten times the production capacity, while at the same time, making the leap to a new age, where natural resources as supplies were replaced with waste as renewable resources. Both Buzau and Iasi benefitted from the employment opportunities of GreenFiber and saw a boost in the local economy, becoming again important industrial hubs.

Future plans for GreenFiber include investments in new production sites in Romania, with the aim to become world’s number one producer for synthetic recycled fibers.