South Korean plastics extruder and waste management firm Mecen IPC is launching commercial production at a newly established joint venture low density polyethylene foam insulation plant in Serbia.
The Seoul-based company linked up with the local firm Evropa-Inex of Novi Banovci, Serbia to invest around €4m in the new facility in Nova Pazova. It will serve markets including construction, automotive and air-conditioning systems.
Production equipment to turn out the foam insulation material was installed in the newly built plant, the workforce began training and trial manufacturing began during February. This month (March) saw the start of full production at the new unit.
The joint venture Mecen Evropa Tech will employ a total of 35 during the first year of operation while it plans to recruit a further 60 employees within the next two years, according to the Serbian government’s investment and export promotion agency SIEPA.
The joint venture is understood to have been in talks with the Serbian petrochemicals producer HIP Petrohemija in Pancevo, Serbia which is prepared to supply HDPE raw material.
The project received government labour incentives amounting to €4,000 per worker from SIEPA, it stated.
Mecen IPC has been following a strategy of expanding worldwide to serve emerging markets with particular promise and potential demand for its extruded PE products. It aims to set up local joint venture production units to avoid costly shipping of its material long distances.
The Korean firm manufactures both chemically cross-linked and non cross-linked PE foam products. It supplies foam materials to a wider range of sectors including the manufacture of other forms of insulation and packaging.
Another Mecen IPC business recycles PET waste. In three separate vertical production processes, it turns out PET flake, PET fibre and permeable synthetic geo textile materials using polyester fibre. It also produces plastics waste based fuels to replace natural fossil fuel like coal.
The company began its waste management business with the launch of a production line for disposable medical devices in 1984 and four years later began manufacturing PE foam sheet. Among its subsidiaries, Mecen IPC includes the joint venture packaging and construction products firm Joongpol in Mielec, Poland.
