Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

France: Knauf Insulation plans to invest Euro110m towards building a new rock wool plant at Illange in Moselle. The plant will have a production capacity of 0.11Mt/yr and it is scheduled to start operation at the end of 2019. Insulation produced at the site will be targeted at markets in France and Germany. The new plant is expected to create 120 jobs.

France: Isover France has launched Isover Recycling, a closed-loop recycling service for construction and demolition glass wool waste. The new service has been developed in partnership with recycling specialists. It aims to reduce glass wool dumping in landfill and increase the proportion of recycled content in Isover’s glass wool insulation products. The Isover Recycling service is currently being deployed in two pilot areas: South-East France and Ile-de-France. It will then be rolled-out across the rest of the country. Other countries like Switzerland, Denmark and Sweden already offer construction site waste recycling services.

Romania: Saint-Gobain Isover is upgrading its Ploiesti mineral wool plant. A modernisation and extension project of its stone wool production line is scheduled to start operation in the second half of 2019. The upgrade will increase the plant’s production capacity to 30,000t/yr and extend its range of products for the Romanian market and neighbouring countries.

Saint-Gobain Isover has run operations on its Ploiesti site since 1997, with a glass wool line currently being modernised and due to start up in July 2018, and a stone wool line.

UK: Knauf Insulation and Veolia have officially opened a Euro11m glass-recycling unit at Knauf’s St Helens mineral wool plant. The unit will be able to recycle over 60,000t/yr of used glass that will then be used as a glass cullet source for glass mineral wool production.

"We have been using recycled glass in our manufacturing process for some time already. As well as securing our glass supply, the quality and consistency that we are getting now from the new facility will enable us to increase further the percentage of glass cullet we use in the manufacture of our glass mineral wool insulation solutions, taking us one step further in our sustainability journey,” said John Sinfield, Managing Director at Knauf Insulation Northern Europe.

Veolia's unit sorts and separates glass to produce pure glass cullet. Machinery at the unit includes vibrating screens for size sorting, magnets to extract ferrous materials and eddy current separators for non-ferrous materials. The new facility enables Knauf Insulation to secure its glass supply and maximise the use of recycled materials instead of using virgin minerals. The closeness of the new unit to the St Helens plant is also expected to save around 600,000km of road journeys. Glass mineral wool products from the plant contain up to 80% recycled materials, the vast majority of which now comes from the glass cullet supplied by Veolia. The new recycling unit has also created 18 jobs.

Germany/Poland: Rockwool plans to build new production lines at its stone wool insulation plants at Malkinia in Poland and Neuburg in Germany. The expansions are intended to target demand in new builds and renovation for non-combustible stone wool insulation, particularly in the external wall system and flat roof insulation segments. The upgrade work at Malkinia also includes improved environmental measures.

“Demand for stone wool insulation is expected to grow in key European markets, and expanding existing facilities lets us add capacity relatively quickly. We are also making good progress on multiple initiatives to optimise and upgrade other of our manufacturing facilities to boost output and reinforce our market-leading position,” said Rockwool Group chief executive officer (CEO) Jens Birgersson.

The new production capacity is scheduled to come on line in the second quarter of 2019 in Poland the second quarter of 2020 in Germany. The cost of the investment is approximately Euro175m. The insulation producer is also planning to increase production capacity at other plants through modifications to equipment and workflow to eliminate bottlenecks.

US: Owens Corning has completed its acquisition of Finland’s Paroc Group for Euro900m. Completion followed the US company obtaining all the necessary regulatory clearances to buy the mineral wool producer.

“We’ve had a strategic goal to broaden our product portfolio and diversify our geographic scope to better address our customers’ needs and support their growth. The acquisition of Paroc does both. We now have a leading position in Europe and in the global mineral wool business,” said Julian Francis, president of Owens Corning’s Insulation Business.

China: Luyang Energy-Saving Materials plans to spend US$19m on a new mineral wool production line. The upgrade will increase its production capacity to 80,000t/yr from 50,000t/yr, according to Reuters.

France: Saint-Gobain plans to build a new glass wool production line at its Isover branded plant at Chemillé near Angers. The line is scheduled to start production in mid-2019. It is being built to meet rising demand in the French market for roof insulation products.

In addition, Saint-Gobain is planning to open new production lines at its plants in Azuqueca near Madrid in Spain and Vidalengo near Milan in Italy. These lines will open in spring and autumn 2018 respectively. Altogether Saint-Gobain has invested Euro45m in the upgrades with the majority placed in Chemillé.

Kuwait: Saint-Gobain and Kuwait’s Alghanim Industries have become joint venture partners in insulation producer Kimmco. Kimmco runs a mineral wool plant in Shuaiba-Kuwait, operating under license from Saint-Gobain Isover. It reported sales of around Euro70m in 2016 selling products in Kuwait and the Middle East.

Saint-Gobain and Alghanim Industries already operate joint venture in Turkey (Izocam) and Saudi Arabia (Siimco). Kimmco, like the other common joint-ventures, will be managed jointly by both partners and will be consolidated in Saint-Gobain's accounts.

US: Johns Manville has issued information about an upgrade to the furnace of its Waterville plant in Ohio that took place in the summer of 2017. The work re-started the plant’s furnace and increased its production capacity. The site produces a range of engineered products, such as continuous glass fibres for insulation, composites, building materials and engineered thermoplastic market.