Page 71 from: May 2013

71May 2013

Czech tyre plant underlines
Pallmann’s ambitions

Germany’s Pallmann Group, one of the world’s largest developers
of innovative size-reduction technolo-
gies, is not wasting any time in explor-
ing business opportunities in what vice
president Uwe Wicht calls ‘one of the
company’s main target regions’, name-
ly Eastern Europe.
In March, Pallmann unveiled a brand
new tyre recycling plant in the Czech
Republic, near the small town of Zatec
some 80 km north west of the capital
Prague in a sparsely-populated rural
area. The plant was completed in con-
cert with Czech recycling company
Hargo which has invested Euro 7.8 mil-
lion in the project. It is employing
around 60 people in the initial stage
but the fi gure is expected to rise to 120
within three years.

Its main product will be rubber granulate
for use as a semi-manufactured material
for impact-absorbent surfaces such as
safety tiles under playground equipment
and at sports facilities. The steel and tex-
tiles derived from the recycled tyres will
be sold on for further processing.
Although the recycling of used tyres is
not new in the Czech Republic and sev-
eral companies are involved in this fi eld,
most end up as fuel at cement plants.

Complete solutions
For Pallmann, this is not its fi rst step
into Czech territory, having previously
installed shredder and separation
machines at two separate tyre plants.
‘Now is the fi rst time we have built a
complete tyre recycling facility in which
we are also responsible for the day-to-
day operation,’ Wicht points out.
It was only three years ago that the com-
pany started to focus on providing com-
plete solutions for the shredding and
reprocessing of vehicle tyres. The fi rst
serious move in that direction was taken
in 2011 when Pallmann introduced a
new tyre processing concept in co-oper-
ation with Spanish company GMN.
The recently-opened plant on the small
industrial zone near Zatec is based
largely on the same concept. ‘We had
a smooth start-up,’ Wicht says. ‘I
realise I may not be the most objective
person to say this, but I truly believe
that when it comes to tyre recycling
this is the most effi cient, state-of-the-
art plant you will fi nd anywhere in the
world at this moment.’

The facility has three cleaning sections,
for shredding and separating rubber,
steel wire and fi bres. It can process
truck tyres of up to 1.2 metres in diam-
eter, tractor tyres of up to 1.8 metres
and car tyres of up to 0.75 metres. The
plant has the capacity to handle 1.5
million tyres per year, of which approx-
imately 70% are coming from trucks
and the other 30% from cars.
The Czech facility draws in used tyres
from all over the European mainland,
but principally from Italy, Germany and,
unsurprisingly, the Czech Republic.

Fast connections
So why build a plant in a rural area
with limited infrastructure? ‘The facil-
ity is built in a small industrial area
which has high potential for growth in
the near future,’ Wicht explains. ‘Good
infrastructure is on its way. Thanks to
a new highway still under construc-
tion, transport to and from the plant
will be more effi cient in the future.’
The new highway will create fast con-
nections to Prague and Chemnitz in
Germany within two or three years.
But Pallmann’s clients in the recycling
industry are not prepared to wait that
long to see for themselves what the

The brand new recycling plant at Zatec in the Czech
Republic.

Shredding produces ‘tyre chips’.

Uwe Wicht: ‘We had a smooth start-up’.

T Y R E S By Martijn Reintjes

plant has to offer, with visitors con-
verging on the facility from all over the
world. ‘Recently, a group of represen-
tatives from a Chinese recycling com-
pany visited the site,’ Wicht notes by
way of example.
Pallmann intends to expand its tyre
recycling presence across Eastern
Europe. ‘Our Czech operation is a fi rst
and giant step, but there is more to
come,’ Wicht insists. Without giving too
many details (‘all our competitors read
this magazine’), he estimates four to
six new tyre recycling plants will be
started up in Eastern Europe within the
next fi ve years. Wicht sees big oppor-
tunities in Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine
and Belarus, as well as in countries of
the former Yugoslavia such as Croatia
and Serbia.

The building and operation of complete tyre recycling
plants has become a serious business for machine
manufacturer Pallmann. Just recently, the company has
started up a ‘state-of-the-art’ facility in the Czech Republic.
And there is ‘more to come’ in Eastern Europe, Pallmann’s
vice president Uwe Wicht confirms.

Pallmann’s Czech pride and joy: a tyre processing line in operation since March.

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