Tyre recycling and manufacturing firms withing the PFE International Group are making a multimillion-rand comeback with multiple investments in expanding their manufacturing plants in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu Natal.
British investor and CEO of Van Dyck and Mathe Group, Mehran Zarrebini, said the Covid-19 pandemic had provided time to plan future expansions to consolidate the supply chain for Mathe, which recycles radial truck tyres to produce rubber crumb, and for Van Dyck, which manufactures rubber flooring and paving for gyms and playgrounds, as well as ballistic tiles, acoustic underlays and livestock mats.
“It accelerated the need to change as a business and to pivot away from soft flooring and into the manufacture of sustainable rubber products,” said Zarrebini.
He said exports of Van Dyck products to the United Kingdom had grown substantially over the past year with containers of gym tiles and acoustic cradles made from recycled South African tyres regularly dispatched via the port of Durban. The UK had previously sourced these products from China and Malaysia.
To facilitate growth, Van Dyck moved existing machinery for producing moulded goods from its south Durban factory, which the business sold in 2020. He also purchased and commissioned additional plants to increase output at its Hammarsdale factory, aligning the recycling and manufacturing processes in one premises.
Zarrebini said the moulding division of Van Dyck was previously a much smaller focus of the overall business, which has now been operating 24/7 as a standalone business since the start of 2022.
“We are coming from a lower base, so we have an opportunity to scale the business further, which we are doing now. The new investment will more than double output. This means that we are using a lot of the rubber crumb generated by Mathe for our own internal purposes as well as selling it to external customers. This has created a slight capacity constraint on the recycling side.”
The business's next phase will be to increase recycling capacity when new imported machinery is commissioned within the next three months.
As one of South Africa’s only remaining tyre recyclers, Mathe has operated 24/7 since the beginning of 2022. The business processes about 700 radial truck tyres per day, producing between 25 and 30 tonnes of rubber crumb. The additional equipment is expected to boost this to 45 tonnes per day and increase tyre usage to approximately 1 000 per day.
However, Zarrebini cautioned that load shedding had posed significant challenges to companies such as Mathe Group, which relies on electricity to mechanically recycle tyres.
Mathe installed 980 x 570KW solar panels on its three buildings in October last year.
“This produces up to half a megawatt per hour and ensures we can use sustainable energy for more than half of our operational requirements, a first in South Africa and, possibly, in the world when it comes to tyre recycling. This is a very proactive way of tackling the energy crisis,” said Zarrebini.
Plans to add a second tyre recycling line in Hammarsdale are already well under way and at the EIA stage.
He said Van Dyck was also working closely with its UK customers to develop more innovative moulded rubber products and flooring solutions.
Mathe currently employs 100 people and Van Dyck a similar number, with the majority of employees sourced from the surrounding Hammarsdale community.
