IBM helps China tap into computer refurbishment

China – Technology giant IBM has opened the first facility in Shenzhen, China, where old computers can be refurbished for resale. This particular market in China is expected to become worth at least Euro 1.5 billion by 2014.

Richard Dicks, General Manager of IBM Global Asset Recovery Services, had been negotiating the deal with the Chinese government for two years. ‘We’re the first licensed facility, meaning we have a first-to-market advantage,’ he remarks, adding that the potential for this market is ‘huge’. China’s rapidly-developing economy and resulting e-waste growth explains the government’s move, according to Mr Dicks.

With its latest Five-Year Plan designed to encourage recycling and remanufacturing so as to reduce landfilling, the Chinese authorities understood IBM’s argument that ‘it’s really easy to buy a new computer but it’s really hard to get rid of one’.

Located near an existing IBM factory, the remanufacturing plant in Shenzhen will be capable of processing approximately 100 000 servers and personal computers on a yearly basis. Mr Dicks says that the supply of old servers will come predominantly from China and that the facility will also accept non-IBM devices – although these will be dismantled and refurbished at a different site.

Owing to the appeal of this market, Mr Dicks believes many competitors will eventually establish facilities in China.
 

For more information, visit: www.ibm.com