Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Belgium: Recticel has recorded sales of Euro298m in the first quarter of 2020, down by 6.2% year-on-year from Euro318m in the corresponding period of 2019. Recticel said that sales in the first two months of 2020, “remained in line with the previous year despite the impact of the coronavirus crisis on sales and operations in China.” Sales in March 2020 fell by 17% month-on-month, “due to the outbreak and the resulting governmental lockdown measures in most countries.” Insulation sales fell by 2.9% to Euro60.7m Euro62.5m. Recticel said, “Lockdown measures led to a reduction of construction activities as of mid-March 2020. Our insulation plants continued (reduced) operations in all countries except in France where construction activity was halted since mid-March 2020.”

Belgium: Knauf Insulation plans to install 6000 photovoltaic panels at its Visé mineral wool plant. These will provide 1700MWhr/yr to the unit. The announcement was made at the opening of Knauf Insulation’s Experience Centre in Visé. The centre is intended to act as a knowledge base for best practice and sustainability.

Belgium: Recticel’s insulation division’s sales rose by 4% year-on-year to Euro62.5m in the first quarter of 2019 from Euro60.1m in the same period in 2018. It said that volume growth had overcome falling sales prices due to falling methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) costs. Polyurethane (PUR) and polyisocyanurate (PIR) have continued to gain market share following MDI shortages in mid-2017.

Belgium: Recticel has rejected an offer from Kingspan to buy its insulation division and flexible foams division for Euro700m. The board said that it did not believe that the offer was not in the interest of its stakeholders. It added that the sale of these divisions was not in line with its strategy and that the offer ‘significantly’ underestimated the value of the divisions.

Belgium: Recticel says that Kingspan Group has made a non-binding offer to buy its insulation division and flexible foams division for Euro700m. Kingspan says it has entered into a back-to-back agreement with an unnamed third party for the disposal of all of the flexible foams business. Recticel’s board of directors will analyse the proposal in line with its fiduciary duty and update the market. Any purchase would be subject to regulatory approval.

Belgium: Record earnings from Recticel’s insulation business have lifted the company’s financial performance in 2018. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) rose by 13.2% year-on-year to Euro38.1m in 2018 from Euro33.7m in 2017. Overall, its adjusted EBIT fell by 4.8% from Euro63.3 from Euro66.5. Sales from its insulation division fell slightly to Euro244m.

“2018 has been a challenging year for Recticel, in a context of very soft European bedding and furniture demand since the spring, and of declining automotive demand in Europe and Asia since the summer. Thanks to the all-time high results of our Insulation division, the company has managed to hold the Adjusted EBITDA (-1.6%) in line with the level of last year,” said chief executive officer (CEO) Olivier Chapelle.

The foam products producer said that it had increased its stake in Turvac, a Slovenian producer of vacuum insulation panels, to 74% from 50% in early 2019. The company operates a plant in Šoštanj.

Belgium: Femke de Jong has been appointed as Climate & Energy Manager at European Insulation Manufacturers Association (EURIMA). She will be responsible for all the climate and energy related topics within the multidisciplinary EURIMA-staff relating to energy efficiency first, energy efficiency in buildings, building renovation, the implementation of the Clean Energy for All Europeans Package, Long Term Climate & Energy Strategies, the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and the support of and cooperation in EURIMA’s partners and allies network.

De Jong is a graduate in Econometrics. She holds over a decade of experience in climate, energy and environmental policies in consultancy, politics and the non-profit sector. She worked for almost five years at Carbon Market Watch as the organisation's policy director. Before that, she was a political advisor in the European Parliament and a researcher at environmental consultancy CE Delft.

Belgium: Recticel is coordinating the four-year PUReSmart project that was launched on 1 January 2019. The project will look at ways of recycling polyurethane (PU) and turning it into a circular material. It is supported by Euro6m in funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme.

PUReSmart plans to recover over 90% of end-of-life PU with the goal of converting it into inputs for new and known products. The project consortium will develop sorting technologies to separate a diverse range of PU materials into dedicated feedstocks. These feedstocks will be broken down into their basic components as inputs for existing PU products, and as raw materials for a newly designed polymer that merges the durability of thermosets with the circularity of thermoplastics.

The PUReSmart consortium is an end-to-end collaboration spanning the entire polyurethane reprocessing value chain, and comprises both industrial players and dedicated research partners. As well as Recticel the other partners on the project include Covestro Deutschland, BT-Wolfgang Binder, WeylChem InnoTec, Ecoinnovazione, Ghent University, KU Leuven, Universidad De Castilla – La Mancha and Ayming.

Belgium: Recticel is promoting its Du.Panel X polyurethane panel product for the agricultural sector. It offers a lambda value of 0.020W/mK for panel thicknesses of 40 – 120mm and fire resistance with Euroclass B-s2,d0. The product is intended for using in livestock buildings and stables. It joins other agricultural products including Powerline, Cronus and Eurothane.

Belgium: Recticel’s sales for its insulation business has remained stable year-on-year at Euro202m in the first nine months of 2018. The polyurethane foam producer’s insulation sector sales fell year-on-year in the third quarter of 2018 due to ‘strong’ volumes combined with falling prices and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) input prices. Overall sales at the company have risen slightly so far in 2018.