Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Kingspan Insulation has inaugurated the expansion of its Winchester plant in Virginia. An investment of US$25m was used to build an extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation panel production line. The new line will double the plant’s production capacity by manufacturing GreenGuard XPS panels. The company has also announced spending US$1.1m on buying an additional 7.3 acres of land adjacent to the plant’s location.

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.