MUSCAT: A leading Indian-based global recycling company has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support the establishment of a battery recycling plant in the Sultanate of Oman.
Mumbai-headquartered Gravita India Limited stated in a filing to the local bourse that its Netherlands’-based subsidiary plans to set up a 6,000 metric tonnes per annum (MTPA) capacity battery recycling plant in partnership with Oman-based investors.
Gravita Netherlands BV (GNBV) has executed a MoU to this effect and will be holding 50 per cent of the equity in addition to management control in the project, the Indian parent organization said. The remaining equity will be held by Oman-based partners, it noted.
“Further, total investment in this Joint Venture for Phase-1 will be approximately Rs 40 crore (RO 1.86 million approx.) and GNBV will be investing approximately Rs 20 crore (RO 930K) towards its share in fixed capital and working capital as its contribution,” Gravita stated in its filing.
Ranked among the Top 1000 listed companies on India’s two main bourses NSE and BSE, Gravita India specializes in non-ferrous metals and plastics-based recycling and manufacturing operations with a presence across Asia, Africa and South America. The Group presently oversees a network of manufacturing and recycling plants operating in diverse geographies with an aggregate capacity of 227,000 mtpa.
Significantly, the planned Muscat project will be Gravita’s first recycling related investment in the Middle East. “This is in alignment with the company's expansion plan of replicating the recycling business in different geographies,” the company stated in its filing, adding it already operates similar recycling facilities in Togo, Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Nicaragua and Sri Lanka besides India.
These investments are typically a source of non-ferrous metals, notably lead metal, that are extracts from scrap such as lead batteries, plates, stripped cable, hard and soft metal, lead blocks and lead concentrate for the company’s core operations.
Of late, the Sultanate of Oman has been attracting a growing mix of local and international players to its expanding ‘circular economy’ industry as the government, represented by Oman Environmental Services Holding Co (be’ah) presses ahead with a strategy to unlock value from various solid waste streams.
Already, a number of projects are in various stages of development and operation targeting value creations from waste streams, such as waste paper, used cooking oil (UCO), end-of-life tyres, biowaste, lead acid batteries, and electronic waste, among others.
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