Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Canada: The governments of Quebec and Canada have awarded France’s Soprema US$6.9m towards building an insulation plant at Sherbrooke in the Estrie region of Quebec. The project has a total budget of US$34.6m and it will produce extruded polystyrene insulation panels.

The Quebec government funding, allocated under the ESSOR program, includes a US$4m loan and a non-repayable financial contribution of US$1.2m. As for the federal government, Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED) has granted US$1.6m to Soprema, in the form of a repayable contribution.

Headquartered in Strasbourg, France Soprema produces insulation, waterproofing, soundproofing and roofing products for the construction and civil engineering sectors. Its North American head office and research centre are located in Drummondville, in the Centre–du–Québec region. The company runs three plants in Canada at Drummondville, Quebec City and Richmond.

France: Icynene Europe, the European division of spray foam insulation manufacturer Icynene, has purchased Isolat France, a polyurethane insulation distributor. The acquisition will allow Icynene to sell light density spray foam insulation, obtain a Conformité Européene (CE) marking for spray foam insulation and to establish a presence in France.

“The acquisition reinforces Icynene’s commitment to growth within the European market with direct sales to contractors. Operating across two dozen European countries, Icynene Europe will now have a comprehensive product mix of open- and closed-cell spray foam insulation products that we will manufacture in Europe,” said Bertrand Lauret, Managing Director of Icynene Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

US/Canada: Johns Manville (JM) has launched JM CladStone Water & Fire Block Insulation in the US and Canada. The mineral wool product is for use in cavity wall and rain screen applications. JM says that the product allows for the drainage of water from an exterior wall cavity system.

“We are committed to providing our customers with an array of products to meet the needs of any project, and that’s why we’re introducing JM CladStone Water & Fire Block Insulation, a non-combustible product designed to aid in managing moisture in continuous insulation systems,” said Tommy Knappich, Vice President and General Manager of Building Insulation at JM.

Canada: Ashburton Ventures has announced that it is to enter the vacuum insulation panel (VIP) market and, in partnership with ZMM Canada Minerals, will target the construction market, following research and development. The partners will use ZMM’s Z-1 Clinoptilolite Zeolite Quarry, as a source of Z-1 zeolite, a highly-porous naturally-occuring mineral, as the core of VIPs.

VIPs have so far found limited use in the construction sector due to their high cost and tendency to lose performance with time. The cost of using zeolites is expected to be much lower than conventional silica or glass fibre based boards, potentially opening up vast new areas of application for VIP technology.

“This is an exciting time for Ashburton. To have its unique Z-1 zeolite used in the creation of a leading edge clean energy, clean technology initiative in collaboration with the University of Victoria, the Province of B.C. and the Federal Government is truly a big step for our shareholders,” said Ashburton’s President David Gdanski.

Canada: CanWel Building Materials has entered into a multi-year agreement with Knauf Insulation for distribution of its mineral wool insulation products to the Lumber and Building Materials (LBM) channel across Canada.

"We are excited to extend our product offering for the LBM channel to include this high quality product line and to partner with one of the world's largest manufacturer of glasswool insulation," said Marc Seguin, President of CanWel.

Canada: An Owens Corning fiberglass insulation plant in Edmonton has been ordered to monitor its emissions following a fire in early January 2016. The fire on 4 January 2016 damaged the plant's secondary air scrubber on its insulation batting production line.

Without the second scrubber the plant is contravening its Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act approval. A remedial solution to replace the curing oven's secondary air scrubber could take more than six months to implement.

As part of an enforcement order Owens Corning must monitor and notify Alberta Environment and Parks of any significant deviation from normal performance of the primary air emission scrubber on the curing oven. If the plant exceeds any air emission limits then production must immediately stop. Additional monitoring on the curing oven stack, including manual stack surveys, and an approved ambient air-monitoring plan are also required.

Ireland/Canada: Kingspan has obtained approval for the acquisition of Vicwest Building Products. The Irish insulation, building fabric and solar-integrated building envelopes company said that it has reached a consent agreement with the Canadian Competition Bureau, which requires the disposal of Kingspan's insulated metal panel facility at Hamilton, Ontario following the completion of the transaction.

In November 2014 Kingspan announced that it was buying the building products division of Vicwest Inc for US$136m in cash, inclusive of debt and reorganisation costs. The total estimated consideration payable is US$307m, of which Kingspan will fund US$126m and AGI will fund US$181m. The transaction is expected to complete imminently.

US/Canada: Armacell International SA, which produces flexible insulation foams for the equipment insulation market, has completed the acquisition of Industrial Thermo Polymers Limited (ITP), a producer of extruded polyethylene (EPS) foam products in North America.

"We are pleased and excited to welcome the employees of ITP into the Armacell family," said Thomas Himmel, vice president of the Americas and engineered foams for Armacell. "The acquisition of ITP supports our strategy to expand our manufacturing capability of polyethylene foam products. The Brampton facility will be the base for our future investment into the manufacture of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) foam in North America."

ITP was founded in 1980 and maintains headquarters in Toronto, Canada. Under the brand name Tundra, it manufactures self-sealing pipe insulation, insulating foam filler and water toys. In 2014, ITP generated US$23.5m in revenue.

Canada/US: Roxul, a subsidiary of Rockwool International, has adopted a new 'strategic direction' for the North American Industrial, Marine and Offshore business. Effective from 1 January 2015, the Roxul Industrial & Marine team has been integrated into a global platform with Rockwool Technical Insulation (RTI) to create Roxul Technical Insulation.

"With our existing expertise and combined resources, Roxul Technical Insulation can provide improved support to its North American customers by leveraging our global influence, ultimately bringing greater value to our local response," said Mike Kozokowsky, vice president Industrial, Sales. The North American team will continue to be headquartered out of Roxul's Milton offices in Ontario, Canada.

UK/Canada: Kingspan Group has announced that it will buy the building products division of Vicwest Inc for US$136m in cash, inclusive of debt and reorganisation costs.

Kingspan said that the acquisition will be structured as the purchase by Kingspan of Vicwest and the simultaneous transfer of the Westeel business and assets to Ag Growth International. The total estimated consideration payable is US$333m, of which Kingspan will fund US$137m and AGI will fund US$196m. The acquisition of the building products business will be funded from Kingspan's existing credit facilities.

The division being bought comprises three insulation panel production plants and a number of profiling facilities across Canada and the US. Revenues for the year that ended 31 December 2013 were US$224m and pro forma earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was US$11.7m. The unit had gross assets of US$111m at 30 June 2014.