Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

UK: Russia’s TechnoNicol is to spend Euro42m towards upgrading its mineral wool plant in Stirling operated by Superglass. The investment will double the plant’s production capacity to 60,000t/yr. The upgrade work will include installing a new 187t furnace and curing ovens. Cooling, cutting and milling equipment will be replaced and an automatic packing system will be installed. Construction will start early in 2018.

“TechnoNicol’s backing is a real vote of confidence in Scottish manufacturing, both in terms of the quality of the work we do here and the expertise of the workforce. It is a validation of our strategy within Superglass over recent years and very personally satisfying for me to see further consolidation of the initial investment at our regional headquarters,” said Ken Munro, chief executive officer (CEO) of TechnoNicol UK, Ireland and USA which incorporates the Superglass business.

TechnoNicol operates 52 manufacturing facilities across Russia and Europe.

US: Johns Manville has issued information about an upgrade to the furnace of its Waterville plant in Ohio that took place in the summer of 2017. The work re-started the plant’s furnace and increased its production capacity. The site produces a range of engineered products, such as continuous glass fibres for insulation, composites, building materials and engineered thermoplastic market.

Romania: Saint-Gobain Isover plans to reopen its glass wool production line at its Ploiesti plant in July 2018. The line is expected to restart following a complete furnace rebuild and other upgrades. 50 new jobs will be created in production, logistics and administrative departments.

“The production line allows Isover to adapt its glass wool production capacity to the market demand in the region, given that Romanian market is the largest of the South-East European region. Our decision was generated by the positive trend registered by the construction market in the past year, a trend that is expected to continue over the next years as well,” said Ovidiu Pascutiu, General Manager for Saint-Gobain Rigips and Isover Romania.

Isover has also announced plans to upgrade its stone wool production line at the Ploiesti plant in 2018. The production capacity of the line will be increased by 30,000t/yr in 2019 following the Euro50m upgrade.

Romania: Rockwool Group has announced plans to build a basalt mineral wool production plant in Romania, a project worth an estimated Euro50m. The basalt mineral wool plant, Rockwool Group's first in Romania, will create around 150 jobs, while an additional 300 will be created indirectly in services and logistics, Rockwool said in a press release. The process of issuing permits and authorisations was already initiated, so that production of basalt mineral wool is expected to start in 2019.

The new production unit will spread over approximately 30 hectares in Ariceştii Rahtivani commune near the southern city of Ploiesti. The project will strengthen the group's strong presence in Romania, a market that has been active for almost 20 years through its local sales branch.

The plant will contribute to the growth of the local economy, given that most of the raw materials and logistics services will come from Romania, and most of the workforce directly employed by Rockwool or the subcontractors will be local, the company said.

"This investment will allow us to better support Romania's efforts to increase fire safety and energy efficiency in its buildings,” said Rockwool Group’s Senior Vice President Gilles Maria. “We encourage the government to continue to work with the EU Member States within the Firefighting Information Exchange Platform (FIEP) as well as other initiatives that will improve the fire safety regulations.”

Netherlands: The PolyStyreneLoop (PSL) Cooperative has inaugurated the European expanded polystyrene (EPS) / extruded polystyrene insulation (XPS) industry’s closed-loop project for the recycling of polystyrene (PS) insulation foam waste in Amsterdam. The research is testing a concept to dissolve the recently restricted chemical, Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), from PS foam waste while also allowing for the recovery of bromine, which can then be used again for the production of new flame retardants. The PSL project is intended to help the European Union (EU) deal with an expected 20Mt of insulation material containing HBCD that will need to be disposed of in the next 50 years.

The PolyStyreneLoop demonstration plant aims to begin operations in 2018 and will have the capacity to treat up to 3300t/yr of PS waste. Once up and running, the PolyStyreneLoop project will be able to cope with incoming PS foam waste streams and produce recyclate that could be used in new PS foam insulation installations. The new initiative has been financed and built by the 56 members and supporters of the PolyStyreneLoop Cooperative. The EU has also supported it financially.

The association for European Manufacturers of Expanded Polystyrene (EUMEPS) said that recycling PS foam typically saves as much as 50% CO₂ emissions compared to using it for energy recovery. It added that it believes that the technology it is testing offers an additional contribution to resource efficiency at the end-of-life phase for PS foam insulation, on top of the CO₂ emissions already saved by reducing energy consumption during the long-use phase of a building.

Czech Republic: Rockwool is planning to use its Bohumin plant’s full production capacity to make mineral wool in 2017. In 2016 the unit produced a record 4Mm³ of the product and so far it has produced 80% of this in the first nine months of 2017, according to the CIA news agency. The increased production levels follow an upgrade at the site in 2015. Insulation products from Bohumin are sold locally, in Slovakia and elsewhere in Europe.

Romania: Austrotherm has opened an insulation plant at Arad. The Austrian company opened its third expanded polystyrene (EPS) plant in the country in early November 2017. The unit is intended to serve Transylvania and other western regions.

The company originally entered the Romanian market in 1999 with an EPS plant in Bucharest. A second plant at Horia was opened in 2006. Production of extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation followed at this site in 2008.

Poland: Finland’s Paroc is spending around Euro60m on an expansion project at its Trzemeszno mineral wool plant. A new 70,000t/yr stone wool production line will be built at the site. The upgrade is expected to be completed in 2019.

"This is an important step for Paroc to continue the profitable growth. Demand for insulation has been increasing, especially in the Central and Eastern Europe. With increased production capacity we are able to grow together with our customers and improve our competitiveness and efficiency," said Kari Lehtinen, chief executive officer (CEO) of Paroc.

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.