Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Sweden: Denmark-based BewiSynbra has announced its acquisition of an extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation plant in Norrköping after its conditional takeover of the owner for Euro5.6m including BewiSynbra’s assumption of its debts. The company says it will expand XPS production and install an expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation line at the plant in late 2020, as a result of which it will close its nearby Norrtälje EPS insulation plant. It expects to conclude the deal in February 2020.

Azerbaijan: Russia’s Penoplex has held a ground-breaking ceremony for a new insulation board plant it is building in Hajigabul district. The project is part of an interstate partnership between Azerbaijan and Russia, according to the Trend News Agency. Penoplex operates eight plants in Russia, one plant in Kazakhstan and one plant in Uzbekistan.

UK: Superglass has completed a Euro43m upgrade to its glass wool plant in Stirling, Scotland. Production capacity at the unit has been doubled to 60,000t/yr, according to the Scotsman newspaper. A new furnace, curing oven and an automatic packing system were installed as part of the upgrade. The project was first announced in 2017 following the acquisition of the company by Russia’s TechnoNicol in 2016.

France: Hirsch France, a partnership consisting of 66% Hirsch and 34% BewiSynbra, has purchased six Saint-Gobain expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation plants and 49.9% of shares in Isossol from Saint-Gobain subsidiary Placoplâtre.

Saint Gobain’s nine-month sales fell by 4.1% year to Euro31.1bn to 30 September 2019 from Euro32.5bn. The group is targeting annual divestment equivalent to Euro3.0bn to cut losses.

Netherlands: Nine-month restated sales for Recitel fell by 7.3% year-on-year to Euro924m in September 2019 compared to Euro997m in the corresponding period of 2018. Despite ‘double-digit’ volume growth, insulation sales over the period fell by 4.5% to Euro193m from Euro202m due to pricing issues stemming from the loss of market share to fibre insulation as a lingering after-effect of the isocyanate shortage of 2017. The company noted the ‘ramping-up’ of production at its new plant in Finland, with all products now certified for sale in the Nordic countries. Recticel CEO Olivier Chapelle noted the continued substantial decrease in debt as a positive in the period.

France: Knauf Insulation entered production at its new 0.1Mt/yr mineral wool plant in Illange on 22 October 2019. Knauf Western Europe managing director Mark Leverton called the plant, which cost Euro110m and will employ 123 people, a ‘reference plant’ for the group ‘in terms of its approach to the environment and the wellbeing of employees.’ The group reported that 7.5ha has been set aside for a wildflower meadow, with Urbanscape Green Roof installed across plant buildings.

UK: Edinburgh-based bio-insulation company IndiNature is preparing to build a Euro4.4m production plant at Hawick in southern Scotland. The company is currently in talks with Scottish Borders Council, contractors and others about the project, according to the Southern Reporter newspaper. The 2600m3 plant is set to create 30 jobs. It is hoped that the new unit will be ready by the end of 2020. IndiNature manufactures its rigid IndiBoard and IndiTherm batts insulation products from plant-based materials.

Uzbekistan: Russia’s TechnoNicol is ‘seriously considering’ building a new 1.3Mm³/yr stone wool insulation plant In Uzbekistan. Vasily Tkachev, the head of the Mineral Insulation division of TechnoNicol, said that building a plant in the country would be ‘geographically justified,’ according to the Trend News Agency. He added that ‘significant’ changes in the local regulatory framework were expected regarding the requirements for energy efficiency of buildings during new construction and reconstruction. A final decision on the project will be made following a full assessment of the market and its potential sales regions.

Hungary: MOL Group and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions have laid the foundation stone at a new polyol plant being built at Tiszaújváros. MOL Group is investing Euro1.2bn in the project. It is expected to be commissioned in 2021 and will produce around 200,000t/yr of polyols.

The new Tiszaújváros complex will produce polyether polyols using technologies such as the HPPO process (propylene oxide from hydrogen peroxide) developed by ThyssenKrupp and Evonik. Polyols produced at the new plant will be potentially used as a precursor chemical in many industries, including polyurethane building insulation.

“This investment project will make MOL Group one of the most important players in the region’s chemical industry, with MOL being the only Central and Eastern European company to control the entire value chain from crude oil extraction to polyol production,” said Zsolt Hernádi, the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of MOL.

Ireland: Kingspan’s revenue rose by 12% year-on-year to Euro2.24bn in the first half of 2019 from Euro2.01bn in the same period in 2018. Its profit grew by 18% to Euro173m from Euro147m. Sales of its panel and boards products increased but panel sales growth was faster, supported by most territories with the exception of the Middle East.

“We have delivered a record first half with revenue growth in all our business units and a strong trading profit performance. We continue to expand our global production footprint with new facilities under construction in the US, Brazil and Sweden. The near-term outlook is solid although the political uncertainty in the UK, weakness in Serling, and weaker German economy are amongst risks we are monitoring closely,” said Gene Murtagh, the chief executive of Kingspan.

The building materials company is close to completing a new insulation panel plant at Modesto, California in the US. A new panel plant is also being considered in Pennsylvania, US and a new panel plant in Cambuí, Brazil is expected to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2019. A new board plant in Sweden is scheduled to start production in mid-2020.