New state-owned recycling company established in China focused on upstream recycling activities including battery collection

The new entity, China Resources Recycling Group, is a new 100% state-owned company with 10 Bn RMB in registered capital ($1.4 Bn) that will specialize in resource recycling and build a national “resource recycling and reuse platform”. From the government’s side it will be the Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council that will control the company on behalf of the State Council. The shareholders include Sinopec, China Baowu, China Minmetals, China Resources Group and China Aluminum Corporation.

China Resources Recycling Group will simultaneously establish a number of specialized subsidiaries, with businesses covering construction and scrap steel recycling, recycling and trade-in of used electronics, electric vehicles and electric bicycles, waste batteries, as well as retired wind power and photovoltaic equipment. The company may also start processing of non-ferrous metals, and recycling and waste plastics.

In both media and among recyclers it still seems to be unclear which role the company actually will play in the market which mainly consists of private players. In the industry there has been significant frustration around issues with low feedstocks and the challenges for larger sorters and processors to get hold of end-of-life products to recycle. That the new company will be engaged in reuse and repurposing activities signals that the entity could be used to aggressively source used products which earlier have been directed in a wider market dominated by small private companies and instead direct the material to the many well funded industries which has relied on legislation that presumably would secure large feedstocks to large and midsized recyclers which have made significant investments but now see a lack of feedstock eating into their profits.

At this point we have no information about plants or capacities in any of the reuse and recycling areas.