Abengoa through its industrial waste recycling division, Befesa, has reached an agreement to acquire 100 % of the South Korean company Hankook R&M. The firm specializes in recycling steel dusts and is constructing a plant in the city of Gyeongju, in the south eastern part of the country, which will come into operation in the first quarter of 2013. Abengoa will be responsible for operating the plant.

The new plant, which will serve the principal steelmakers in the region, will be capable of recycling 110,000 t/ year of steel dusts, which will bring Abengoa's capacity to 750,000 t/ year by 2013. The plant will use advanced SDHL technology, developed and patented by Abengoa, which is a safer and more sustainable technique for recycling steel dusts. The technology achieves higher levels of zinc recovery and is more energy efficient, minimizing waste and improving the recycling process among South Korea's steel manufacturers.

The South Korean market represents an excellent business opportunity for the company, as the world's fourth largest producer of steel dusts with an estimated volume of 500,000 t/ year.

This new investment represents an important milestone in Abengoa's global development and a strategic step forward in its ambitious international expansion plan for its industrial waste division, which is consolidating its position as a leader in the sector in new countries. The company recently began to develop two new steel dust recycling projects in Turkey, where it will have three plants by 2014, in addition to those that are already operational in Germany, France, Sweden and Spain.