PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2015

EDITOUR REPORT 13 PET planet insider Vol. 16 overall planning measures were put in place years ago. These included feasibility studies, investigation of any financial support from the government, and finally poten- tial geographical locations. The world economic crisis in 2009 put a damper on these ambitions, and for the pre- sent the idea of an in-house fibre plant remains on the back burner. “The investment would be substantial, but a plus point is that up to now, there has never been a fibre plant in Tunisia. All fibre is currently imported, so this is a hot topic”. Other areas to ponder are uniform capacity utilisation and material flow, both of which are preoccu- pying the brothers at the moment. They claim it would make much more sense for all those involved in the recycling process chain if the market were to be more meaningfully segmented by establish- ing rules and creating an end-to-end structure. In the opinion of Fadhel Belkhier, “Each company could then concentrate on a single sector and would be committed to passing on the product generated to the next stage in the chain. The collector delivers to the crusher, the crusher to the hot washer, the hot washer to an export com- pany”. In this way – or at any rate this is the idea – material flows and price models would be more consistent than they are today. “For instance, the reason why we carry out the crushing, wash- ing and comminution ourselves, is simply that we have no guarantee that the volume of mate- rial required for one of the processes would be adequate, or that prices would be more stable. If we had a fibre plant we could calculate the output using the quantity of PET we had produced ourselves and increase it appropriately, some- thing which would be perfectly OK for us. But first of all we need to see details of how it is going to work in practice. What we are looking for here is another partner to par- ticipate in a joint venture, someone who will follow up this idea and develop it together with ourselves”. A new location would be part of the plan. “We would then need at least an area of 10,000 m 2 ". And Feres Belkhir adds: “What marks us out are quality and price, which we believe are the best in Tunisia. It is my firm belief that, with the help of a reliable foreign partner who supports our ideas, it would be possible for us to secure a significant market share for fibre with no problem whatsoever”. There is no challenge we will say no to. Because we know that with the widest range of products, technologies, expertise and services, there is no solution we can’t conceive. Contact us to see how our philosophy of Yes has reshaped the very fabric of our brand. Explore all that’s possible with injection, extrusion, blow molding, co-injection, hot runner systems, mold technologies, process control equipment and fluids. Visit www.milacron.com COME SEE WHAT YES BUILT. The new Milacron PET system can produce 10% more output. Available Now.