Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

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.

Belgium: Huntsman Polyurethanes has launched its DaltoPIR XHFR product for composite panels. The polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulation product was introduced at a panels and profile conference in Greece.

The product uses DaltoPIR insulation technology to offer a different viscosity build up in rising foam. The company says that this enables more stable and more consistent processing, which in turn can help panel producers achieve better panel planarity and quicker line speed. The resulting foam has very low friability, which Huntsman says contributes to the long-term properties of the panels.

Belgium: Recticel’s sales from its insulation division have rallied following the resumption on methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) supplies after a shortage in 2017 and poor weather in the first quarter of 2018. Its sales rose by 2.7% year-on-year to Euro129m in the first half of 2018 from Euro133m in the same period in 2017. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBTIDA) increased by 60.6% to Euro14.2m fro Euro22.8m. It attributed the growth in profitability to price rises and efficiency gains. The company also said that the construction of a new plant in Finland, dedicated to the supply of the Scandinavian and Baltics markets, is on schedule to start up in late 2018.

Belgium: Recticel’s insulation sales fell by 2% year-on-year to Euro60.1m in the first quarter of 2018 from Euro61.3m in the same period in 2017. Although it raised its prices due to increased raw materials costs it blamed a fall in volumes on poor weather and an industry-wide polyisocyanurate P(IR) insulation board unavailability in mid-2017 due to a methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) supply shortage. The company added that a new insulation plant it is building in Finland is due to start up in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Hungary: Belgium’s Ravago and Turkeyʼs Beşler Tekstil plant to build a Euro20.5m insulation plant at Alsózsolca. The plant will have a production capacity of 36,000t/yr, according to the Budapest Business Journal. The government is aiding the project with a contribution of just under Euro4m. Once operational the plant is expected to export third-thirds of its output internationally. The unit will also create 90 jobs.

Ravago is a Belgium plastics manufacturer with operations in over 55 countries. Beşler Tekstil is a Turkish textiles producer.

Belgium: The European Insulation Manufacturers Association (Eurima) has supported a European Parliament vote approving a 35% European Union (EU) energy efficiency target. The adopted proposals on the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and the EU Governance regulation has also strengthen Article 7 (Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes).

“With yesterday’s votes, ‘Energy Efficiency First’ now starts to become more than a slogan. When 76% of our efforts towards COP21 must come from energy efficiency, tapping into the savings resting in the buildings sector we are cost-effectively bridging the gap between reality and the COP21 objectives. In this respect, the outcomes of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, EED and EU Governance show that the Parliament is ready to send a strong signal to the Council,” said Jan te Bos, the Director General of Eurima.

Belgium: Knauf Insulation’s chief executive officer (CEO) Jean-Claude Carlin says he is committed to increasing production investment in Europe and North America. The group’s Visé plant in Belgium plans to restart its second line by the end of 2017 as well as adding new capacity to meet increasing demand for blowing wool. An upgrade to a line at St Egidien in Germany is underway following mineral wool production line upgrades at Nova Bana in Slovakia and Skofja Loka in Slovenia in 2014 and 2015 respectively. Another as yet unannounced European production line upgrade is planned for 2018. The group is also restarting the second line at its Inwood plant in West Virginia to support growing residential demand in the North East of the US.

“The first few months of the year proved to be highly promising for the industry and in good times it is vital that we focus on doing an even better job of providing the best possible service and quality for our customers. That is why we are planning on maximising our global footprint through investing in improvements and increasing our production capacity across the globe,” said Carlin. He has conducted a fact-finding mission visiting plants and customers since he took up the post in February 2017.