EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 25 No. 04/24 www.petpla.net 16 Plastic material distributor in Dubai fi ghts against low-cost suppliers with quality promise Food-grade rPET from Nigeria for Europe, North America and beyond by Kay Barton The sales office for plastic raw materials, masterbatches and calcium carbonate, Shad Polymers DMCC, was founded in 2016 by our interview partner and Managing Director Mr Girish Wadhwani together with Mr Chandru Changrani and Vivek Changrani to administratively serve global markets from the Emirates, trade materials and ensure smooth supply. December 20, 2023 Interview with Shad Polymers DMCC We met: Mr Girish Wadhwani, Managing Director. The company is the exclusive distribution partner for rPET for the Polysmart Group, a synthetic fibre processor and recycling company based in Ota, Nigeria. Shad runs a local warehouse in Sri Lanka, CVG Resins & Polymers, one in Ethiopia and other warehouses in Nigeria. With the growing markets for rPET and the potential for post-consumer PET in Nigeria, Polysmart invested US$8 million and installed an Erema Vacurema turnkey recycling line, which has been producing rPET since 2022. We spoke to Mr Wadhwani about market trends, challenges and goals. Mr Girish Wadhwani is a Mechanical Engineer with a specialisation in Process Control Instrumentation and has lived in Nigeria for 18 years and in London for 20 years. The idea for the current sales office in the Jumeirah Lake Towers, around 25 km south of Dubai city centre, was born out of his long time spent in Nigeria. In addition to vPET and rPET, the products offered here include various other synthetic polymers, copolymers and terpolymers. Back in mid-2023, Mr Wadhwani gave us an insight into the fields of activity and the still young rPET project at the World Expo in Essen (see PETplanet 7+8/23, p. 32). We then accepted his invitation to meet during the Middle East Road Show in Dubai. “I find the new recycling project fascinating,” explained Mr Wadhwani over a cappuccino. “There is a lot of movement in the markets, but not always in the right direction, for example in terms of consistent quality or price expectations. Everything is determined by the core issues of availability, quality requirements and ultimately price. That’s why we are also focussing on sales in North America or, above all, Europe, where there is a constant demand for good quality, food-grade base material due to the minimum quantities of recyclate in PET packaging,” he explained. This source material is currently produced at Polysmart in Nigeria with an annual capacity of 6,000 t and is FDA and Efsa-certified. This makes it one of an estimated 15 to 20 significant recycling plants across Africa, of which around five to six produce around 80% of all recyclate on the continent. The largest of these are located in South Africa. The input material EDITOUR Managing Director Girish Wadhwani (right) with Kay Barton
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