China launches new SOE to lead national recycling efforts

Mysteel Global: China Resource Recycling Group (CRRG), a new state-owned enterprise tasked with building a national platform for resource recycling and reuse, was officially established on October 18 in North China's Tianjin, according to state media Xinhua News Agency.

The new company, with a registered capital of Yuan 10 billion ($1.4 billion), is jointly owned by China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, China Baowu Steel Group, China Petrochemical Corporation, and China Resources, each holding a 20% stake, while the remaining 20% is split between Aluminum Corporation of China and China Minmetals Corporation.

CRRG will pursue a market-oriented integration of state-owned enterprise assets and businesses related to recourse recycling, aiming to become a comprehensive solution provider, with operations covering warehousing, processing, distribution, trade-in services, and standards formulation, stated its chairman Liu Yu.

The group will set up multiple specialized subsidiaries to handle resource recovery networks, including the recycling of steel scrap, electronic goods, used batteries from electric vehicles and bikes, and decommissioned wind and solar equipment, as Xinhua reported.

"The establishment of this state-owned enterprise is also intended to support the central government's large-scale equipment upgrade and consumer goods trade-in initiatives," a source from the steel scrap industry commented.

"It is a possible developing direction that state-owned enterprises will directly hand over their waste materials to state-owned recycling companies for further treatment," he added.

On the other hand, the entry of this new government-backed giant into the resource recycling industry signifies that China is firmly advancing with the standardization of this industry, according to the source.

"It is good news for domestic recycling and processing companies that have obtained certification from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology," he said. In the future, qualified scrap processors may enjoy more preferential policies, which will encourage more businesses to optimize their structures to align with industry standards, he predicted.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.