Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Knauf Insulation North America and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) have announced an investment of around US$35m at Knauf’s fibre glass inslation plant at Albion in Michigan. The upgrade is expected to convert and restart an idled production line, increasing production capacity by more than 30% and adding 34 new full-time jobs. It will use recycled bottle glass recovered through the state of Michigan’s Bottle Deposit Law as a raw material. The project is expected to be completed in late 2020.

“Keeping pace with the growing demand in the upper Midwest for quality loose-fill insulation products will be made possible through the expansion of our plant here in Albion,” said Kevin Keen, plant manager at Albion.

The Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) has approved a US$200,000 Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant in support of the project. The MSF also approved a 100%, 15-year State Essential Services Act exemption valued at US$780,000.

US: Kingspan Insulated Panels has appointed Quincy McBride as its director of marketing for North America. He will be based out of Kingspan's DeLand headquarters in Florida.

Previously, McBride served as marketing communications manager at Morris Group International. He also worked as a marketing communications manager at Proactive Management Consulting, event sales manager at InterContinental Hotels Group and as an account executive at Pearson.

Germany: Wacker Group has started selling a variety of pyrogenic silica products from its HDK line on the CheMondis and Pinpools business-to-business (B2B) market websites that markets chemical raw materials and specialty products. The German chemicals company is trading venues and, over the long term, acquire new customers and open up additional marketing channels for its product portfolio. Pyrogenic silica has a wide variety of applications, including usage as a filler for silicones in thermal insulation.

CheMondis, a startup founded by the Lanxess specialty chemicals company, and Pinpools, introduced in 2016, are European B2B marketplaces for chemicals. CheMondis is now used by 650 companies to sell more than 7500 products. Pinpools currently hosts 500 active buyers and vendors. The marketplace serves as a trading platform for more than 5000 products with a focus on paint and coatings, construction and the food and animal feed industry.

US: Rockwool’s Comfortboard stone wool insulation product has been certified by the California State Fire Marshall’s Building Materials Listing (BML) Program. The product is resistant to fire up to 1175˚C and has a 0/0 Smoke Development and Flame Spread rating. The BML Program certifies products based upon an evaluation of test results that include an analysis of required product performance and reliability features. The testing was completed with a State Fire Marshall (SFM) accredited laboratory.

“This listing supports our continued commitment in the promotion of fire safe building practices and helps us deliver on products that will help architects and builders meet the California Title 24 thermal and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) requirements,” said Mark Bromiley, Vice President of Marketing & Business Development, Rockwool (North America).

China/Germany: German companies Evonik and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions have granted a licence to Zibo Qixiang Tengda Chemical for the use of its hydrogen peroxide to propylene oxide (HPPO) technology in China. Qixiang Tengda Chemical will build a propylene oxide plant in Shandong province and Evonik has licensed the production of hydrogen peroxide for the exclusive supply of the plant. Evonik and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions have also entered into a long-term agreement for the supply of the respective HPPO catalyst. Propylene oxide is used mainly for the production of polyurethane foams, including those used in insulation for buildings.

“We’re proud of having gained Qixiang as a new strategic partner. With environmental awareness on the rise in China, HPPO is the technology of choice for sustainable production of propylene oxide because it produces no major by-products apart from water,” said Claus Rettig, the chairman of the board of Evonik’s Resource Efficiency division.

Planning work for the new Qixiang Tengda plant is scheduled to start in mid-August 2019 with commissioning expected for the first half of 2022. Qixiang Tengda, a chemical manufacturer, is part of Cedar Holdings Group.

US: Mohawk Industries says that its insulation business is performing ‘well’ as its polyurethane product takes share from other product types. The flooring manufacturer’s net sales grew slightly to US$4.99bn in the first half of 2019.

US: Owens Corning’s insulation business earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) fell by 30% year-on-year to US$57m in the first half of 2019 from US$81m in the same period in 2018. Its net sales dropped by 2% to US$1.25bn from US$1.28bn. Overall sales and EBIT, across all business lines, grew slightly driving by the roofing business.

Hungary: Bodrogi Bau is upgrading its polystyrene insulation plant in Szeged. It is spending Euro3m on building two new production lines, according to the MTI-Eco news agency. One of the new lines will be used to manufacture polystyrene insulation blocks. The project is supported by a Euro1.5m grant from the European Union (EU) and the local government. The company runs businesses in construction, building material retail, planning and real estate.

North America: A survey by the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA) shows that its members used around 1.17Mt of recycled glass to produce residential, commercial and industrial thermal and acoustical insulation in 2018. The survey included data from both US and Canadian production plants. Producers also used over 0.45Mt of recycled blast furnace slag in the production of thermal and acoustic insulation.

UK: The Insulation Manufacturers Association (IMA) has appointed Stuart Norris as its president. The association is a representative body for the rigid polyisocyanurate (PIR) and polyurethane (PUR) insulation industry in the UK.

Norris is a Senior Product Development Engineer at Portakabin where he is involved in the design and delivery of both temporary and permanent offsite building solutions across a wide range of building sectors. He holds a degree in Product Design from the University of Huddersfield. He also sits on the Technical Committee for the Modular and Portable Building Association (MPBA).