South Korea: The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has suspended the Korea Foamed Plastic Industry Cooperative’s standard for expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulating sandwich panels. The standard had been certified by the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology. Maeil Business Newspaper has reported that the suspension is part of a regulatory revision in the interest of fire safety. The value of the South Korean EPS sandwich panel industry is US$1.37bn/yr.
The Korea Foamed Plastic Industry Cooperative said “With a severe shortage of certification agencies, it takes over a year to obtain certification. This is tantamount to telling small businesses to shut down.”
