In this newsletter, we cover recent visits of top financiers to the GDT pilot plant in Warren, market news on tyre recycling, initial results from graphite testing carried out with CarbonScape and more.
Warren visited by top financiers
GDTC held a number of on-site workshops for prospective investor groups at Warren between Feb 3rd and 5th 2020. Twenty top financiers visited the site to see it operating and to gain a better understanding of the potential commercial benefits of the GDTC process with the view to investing in this round of funding.
Feedback from the attendees has all been positive with some small amounts having been invested already. The big numbers will take longer but we remain confident they will come.
We are looking to raise a total of A$30m to complete Warren, build Toowoomba, identify and prep for site 3, contribute to the building of the first Oversize Tyre plant and complete the groundwork for the launch into the USA.
Tyre Recovery Association predicts increasing cost of tyre recycling
The UK based Tyre Recovery Association has said that there is a need to ensure the cost return from recycled tyres which places the highly efficient GDTC process in a very good competitive position;
Ten years ago when GDTC started on this journey, it was almost impossible to get anyone in Government or industry to sit down and talk about end-of-life tyres. Now the news outlets are full of terrifying old tyre recycling stories, a number of which you may have seen on our Facebook page.
First China made the bold step of prohibiting ALL waste imports and now other nations are following suit, but in a more finite manner. India, for example, the world’s biggest importer of end-of-life tyres, is clamping down on the industry and closing many tyre disposal operations and there is talk about them banning the import of end-of-life tyres completely.
This tyre recycling issue is being felt across the world. In the USA, where a large portion of their ELTs are shipped to India, people are actively looking for alternatives, which is why there is such an active and aggressive interest in GDTC from the United States.
In the UK and Europe, the Tyre Recovery Association is proclaiming that as a result of the closure of the Indian ‘solution’, tyre processing costs will almost certainly rise, perhaps even double. This is also true in Australia where not only will the Indians close their doors, but Australia will ban the export of whole, baled tyres from the end of next year, although crumbed and chipped will still be exported.
All this activity opens a great many doors for GDTC and the introduction of the new capital will facilitate activity within those newly opened passageways.
TTI Award winners will be known on 26 February
Tire Technology International is the Number 1 international magazine for the tyre industry and every year they hold an ‘Expo’ in Europe and this year, it will be held in Hannover, Germany and will be the biggest to date.
It will be held over 3 days at the end of February and there will be more than 160 presentations over 12 ‘streams’ from the science of rubber compounding to design developments, from regulation to technology.
This year “Solving the Problem of Waste Tyres” is on the agenda for the first time. As part of that stream, GDTC in conjunction with CarbonScape has been nominated for an award for converting end-of-life tyres into battery ready graphite. This is an exciting opportunity for both companies to gain recognition across the entire tyre spectrum. The announcements will be made on Day 2 of the Expo, Feb 26th.
Carbonscape carbon research update
The CarbonScape testing program continued over the Christmas/New Year break with some extremely positive results.
The latest test results show the creation of “jumbo flakes” of graphite from GDTC carbon, which is very good news and the team at Carbonscape are pursuing this line of testing to increase the conversion rate and maintain that level of quality. This is still early days, but all these results just add to the conviction that we can do it.
ABS release updated data on tyre exports
In February, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released updated data on exported tyre waste from July 2017 through to October 2019.
The data is quite detailed and highlights some interesting points. Victoria tops the list of tyre exports with 89,597 tonnes over the 28 month period with a proportion of that coming from Tasmanian and NSW had 68,009 tonnes.
The Australian tyres are being sent to four primary markets: India (103,988 tonnes); Malaysia (64,432 tonnes); South Korea (20,374); and surprisingly the USA (17,927 tonnes). Other key markets are Singapore, Spain, Vietnam, El Salvador & Panama. It is also surprising to see China back in position 19, now receiving less of Australia’s tyre waste than Honduras or Romania!
Who knew our used tyres were so well travelled?
Of course, a lot of this export trade (especially whole tyres) will cease in December 2021 when the proposed Federal Government regulation banning waste export becomes a reality. GDT totally supports this ban and has made appropriate submissions to the Government.