Leading Hungarian flooring manufacturer Graboplast says it is set to launch production at a new €19m PVC flooring plant at Tatabánya in the spring of 2014.
Construction of the 4,500m² facility is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year, Graboplast's chairman and CEO Peter Jancso is quoted as telling the Hungarian MTI news agency.
Graboplast has applied for an European Union grant to cover around a third of the project cost. Jancso explained to MTI it is considering other options to finance the remainder of the €19m scheme. It is not ruling out the Hungarian state contributing and taking a minority stake in the firm to raise the money.
This month (Feb), Gy"r-based Graboplast is also due to open a new €2.72m vinyl flooring recycling plant , again located in Tatabánya. The 600m² plant, which has created 10 extra jobs, will recycle waste and substandard products from Graboplast's various production sites.
Graboplast is using its own technology to process the waste vinyl material which will lessen its ecological footprint. The technology employs a special grinding process that breaks PVC flooring into small pieces and then cools it to minus 100 degrees celsius. The resulting glass-like material is vaporised allowing it to be reused for production of new products, according to the firm.
In 2004, Graboplast expanded its existing vinyl flooring plant in Tatabánya to take capacity its capacity from around 12 million m² up to 20 million m² of flooring per year.