Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Officials of CertainTeed Corp, part of Saint-Gobain, have announced that the company will renovate its plant in Kansas City, Kansas, creating more than 70 new jobs over the next three years.

CertainTeed said that it has begun renovating its plant to begin production of fibreglass insulation products during the second quarter of 2015. Greg Silvestri, president of CertainTeed Insulation, said that the company is investing more than US$30m to re-engineer the plant's furnace and restart related production lines to give it greater flexibility to support its growing business needs.

Serbia: Masterplast, a major producer of thermal insulation materials in Central and Eastern Europe, has announced that it plans to expand its plant located in Szabadka, Serbia. Masterplast will invest Euro400,000 of its own resources in the expansion and will launch trial production in its second fibreglass plant. 

US: Installed Building Products has acquired Installed Building Solutions (IBS), an installer of fibreglass insulation, spray foam insulation and waterproofing products. IBS primarily serves select markets across Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. Its sales for the 12 months that ended 30 September 2014 were approximately US$17.4m.

US: Owens Corning, a producer of fibreglass reinforcements for composite systems, is building a new advanced technology facility in Gastonia, North Carolina, that will help meet demand for bio-based products. The new, state-of-the-art equipment will add manufacturing flexibility to produce different widths of the company's new Sustaina® non-woven fibreglass fabric. This will enable more customers to use the product in their applications.

Sustaina surfacing and reinforcing glass non-wovens were introduced to the European market in June 2013. The Sustaina solution uses a bio-based binder system with high tensile strength performance and does not contain any formaldehyde. The new plant will be able to produce 4m widths of Sustaina fabric, rather than the narrower width currently produced on existing assets.

"Building a new site is a great opportunity for us to install the newest, most advanced manufacturing technology," said Steven Vermeulen, vice president and managing director, Engineered Solutions. "The line is designed to facilitate the highest level of quality and efficiency and the flexibility to produce the wider veil will help us to get better yields and reduce waste." Sustaina fabric is designed for use in residential and commercial building applications, like cushion vinyl flooring, ceiling backings and insulation facers. 

US: Owens Corning has announced its receipt of UL-certified ISO compliant Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for its Unfaced and Kraft-Faced EcoTouch^(R) PINK^(R) FIBERGLAS^(TM) Insulation with PureFiber^(R) Technology and its Unbonded LooseFill Insulation. An EPD is an internationally-recognised, standardised tool that reports the environmental impact of goods or services.

An industry first for fibreglass building insulation in North America, the EPDs describe the environmental impact of the insulation products based upon an established set of product category rules and independently verified life cycle assessment (LCA) data from cradle-to-grave. Through the LCA process, products are evaluated on several parameters including raw material production and transportation, product manufacturing and plant operations, product packaging, transportation and distribution of the insulation products and end of life impact.

"The UL-certified EPDs for our EcoTouch^(R) Unfaced and Kraft-Faced Batts and Unbonded LooseFill Insulation reflect our commitment to sustainability and our pledge to be transparent about our products' environmental performance through certification by credible third parties," said Gale Tedhams, director of sustainability for Owens Corning. "The EPDs are a valuable tool, providing the next-level of product information for architects, builders and specifiers to help them meet certain criteria for green building and make sustainable purchasing decisions."

Owens Corning's new EPDs underline insulation as a key contributor to a building's overall energy-efficiency, helping to reduce the energy required to maintain a comfortable living or work environment. Typically, insulation saves 12 times as much energy in its first year in place as the energy used to produce it. That means that the energy consumed during manufacturing is saved during the first four to five weeks of product use.

Latvia: JSC 'Valmieras stikla šķiedra' (VSS), a glass fibre manufacturer based in Valmiera, is expected to complete a US$8.38m expansion by December 2012. The new third one-stage glass furnace at the site is intended to decrease energy usage by 40% and increase production by 50%

"This investment enables us to continue to reduce the inefficient two-stage glass fibre production process or the 'glass marble technology', leaving glass marbles in the past," said VSS chief executive officer A.O. Brutāns. The project has been co-financed by the Latvian Investment and Development Agency which provided US$1.82m.

VSS, which was founded in 1959, produces glass fibre and derived products. The company exports 96% of its production to 32 countries for use in dielectric, sound and thermal insulation. It employs 850 personnel at present.

US: Knauf Insulation, a manufacturer of fibreglass insulation used in new homes, is halting production at its plant in nearby Lanett, Alabama a move that will see layoffs for 146 employees. Joey Viselli, Knauf's vice president of marketing, said that the 800,000ft² facility would be shuttered because of the continued and extreme downturn in demand in the home construction sector.

The workers impacted by the move will be will be paid through to 18 August 2011, according to an official notice filed with the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs. Workers were informed of the closure on 14 June 2011, with most being released from their jobs immediately.

"The building economy has taken a turn for the worse in a fairly dramatic way," said Viselli. "At the peak of the market, (the industry was) starting about 1.7 million homes a year in the US. This year we'll be lucky to start 500,000 homes." A report released last month by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the US Census Bureau showed privately owned housing starts were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 523,000.

Viselli said severance deals would be offered and that some workers will be given opportunities to relocate to other Knauf facilities in Shasta, California and Shelbyville, Indiana, where Knauf Insulation North America is headquartered. He added that there were no plans to sell the Lanett plant at this time.

"It is a difficult decision to mothball a plant," said Mark Andrews, CEO of Knauf Insulation. "It is our sincere regret that we must take this action at this time. We will re-examine the status of the Lanett facility as market conditions change."