New business perspectives for TRS

To meet growing demand in a challenging economical context, Tyre Recycling Solutions (TRS) recently closed a preliminary round of 4 million Swiss francs out of a Series D financing round of 8.5 million Swiss francs. Contacted by Startupticker.ch, Staffan Ahlgren, CEO and founder of TRS, indicates that this figure could be adapted to the demand from potential investors and strategic decisions to take participations in the recycling partners factories. His company will announce the final amount invested at the end of September.

High costs in Switzerland prompted this year the Vaud based company to increase its production capacity to its partner in Turkey, to Spain and new identified potential partners in Europe. The aim was clear: to remain competitive and be able to seize growth opportunities in the Middle East and Asian markets.

Speaking of demand, Staffan Ahlgren believes that the industry is finally discovering the possibilities offered by his company's new TyreXol rubber powders, and the economic virtues of using recycled materials. Currently, TRS solutions are used mainly in three areas: tires, asphalt and footwear, a market showing great potential. In this regard, the CEO mentions the promising collaboration started with a global player that develops and manufactures advanced materials and component solutions for footwear.

New business perspectives in Asia

This week LD Carbon, an environmentally-friendly waste treatment and raw materials recycling company in South Korea that has developed a proprietary pyrolysis technology, and TRS signed a memorandum of understanding to set up an initial plant for the production of TRS's TyreXol rubber powders from the TRS Water Pulse process. The remaining end-of-life tires after TyreXol production will be used by LDC to produce tire pyrolysis oil ("TPO") and high-quality reclaimed carbon black ("rCB"), the quality of which has already passed the assurance tests of various global tire manufacturers for commercial uses.

This partnership with LDC opens up a lot of opportunities for TRS. The Vaud based company has several major customers producing in Asia. “They have been requesting TRS to produce in the region. Circular economy means also shorter supply chain. It took us many years to identify the right partner and right location in Asia. We are very excited to partner with LDC, they are a highly competent and driven team.” explains Sonia Megert, TRS Chief Operating Officer.

Furthermore, LDC and TRS share a list of prospective customers in Japan and Korea for their respective products. TRS produces a highly reactive rubber powder (TyreXol), LDC produces recycled carbon black. Both are in demand from major tire manufacturers who needs to reach their publicly declared sustainability targets. Thus TRS expects that this step will accelerate the approval process at those large customers. Producing currently 11’000 tons of TyreXol powder per year, TRS expects to multiply the number by 6 in the next two to three years.

(ES)

Picture: Signing of a partnership MoU between the LDC and TRS teams, 22nd August 2023