Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Germany: Saint-Gobain has purchased the Augustdorf glass plant in North Rhine-Westphalian from Teuto-Glasveredelung. The unit produces thermal insulating glass products as well as sound-insulating glass and other glass products. The purchase is planned to be completed in March 2017, subject to approval by the government.

Turkmenistan: The Turkmen Industry Ministry has extended a tender for construction of a thermal insulation plant in the Turkmenbashi district of the Balkan region. Bids will be accepted until 7 March 2017, according to the Trend News Agency.

UK: The British Rigid Urethane Foam Manufacturers' Association (BRUFMA) has called for the government to ensure that any new house building campaigns deliver energy efficient buildings and continue to increase the building standards for the sector. BRUFMA was responding to the publication of a White Paper or government report on the local market entitled ‘Fixing our broken housing market.’ The association recognised that the White Paper highlighted a need to continually review the current energy performance standards with regard to climate change targets and to domestic fuel poverty. It added that this should be extended to include the performance in flood risk areas of housing and the materials used in their construction.

‘The White Paper launches a consultation with a range of recommendations to increase numbers of homes being built in the UK. However, there are likely to be many conflicting views so I hope the government doesn’t use this as a way of kicking the problem into the long grass. However many houses are built we must ensure that all new housing is highly energy efficient in line with our climate change objectives. Just because there is a rush to build shouldn’t be an excuse to lower the quality of the thermal performance. And we certainly don’t want to have to come back and retrofit in 20 years because the houses we build today do not meet tomorrow’s requirements,” said Simon Storer, the chief executive of BRUFMA.

Belgium: BASF has increased the methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) production capacity to 0.65Mt/yr from 0.56Mt/yr at its Verbund plant in Antwerp. MDI is used to manufacture polyurethanes, which are used in insulation production and other materials.

Kyrgyzstan: The Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund plans to expand a thermal foam insulation plant at Besh-Kungei in the Chui region in 2017. The project will cost US$1.67m, with 66% of the funding provided by the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund and the remainder by local businesses. The upgrade is part of a umbrella of investments being made by the fund in 2017.

Finland: Paroc Group is planning to shut down the operations of its stone wool plant in Oulu. The decision has been blamed on overcapacity of Finnish production without a similar increase in consumer demand. The plan also includes transferring and centralising support functions to other Paroc factories at other locations. Approximately 70 workers at the site will be affected by the decision and negotiations are on going.

“Starting the cooperation negotiations is very unfortunate. However, the utilisation rate of Finnish stone wool factories’ current capacity is too low to ensure competitive operations in Finland. The factory located in Oulu is an old one, and, in addition to the already high cost structure, continuing its operations would require significant investments in the near future,” said Kari Lehtinen, chief executive officer of Paroc Group.

Russia: TechnoNicol has started operation at a Euro105m mineral wool plant in the south of the Rostov region. The new unit will produce four types of rock wool products. Future plans for the site include the production of pipe and roof insulation and exports to markets in Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan.

Russia: Restrictions on imports have stopped Paroc from transporting stone from its Lapinlahti in Finland to its insulation plant in Russia. Joakim Westerlund, Paroc's chief operating officer, said that the import restrictions on crushed rock material were imposed with relatively short notice in summer 2016 according to the Savon Sanomat newspaper. Subsequently the insulation producer has had to source stone locally in Russia. Quarrying at Lapinlahti for Paroc by Fjäder Group has previously totalled 20,000t/yr.

Germany: Firestone Building Products Company says that it will build an insulation plant in Heinsberg. The site will establish a European insulation manufacturing and distribution presence for the subsidiary of tyre and rubber manufacturer Bridgestone. The plant is expected to be fully operational in 2018.

“The Heinsberg location will be the second European manufacturing facility for the company. We acquired the Giscosa EPDM (ethylene propylene diene monomer) plant in Terrassa, Spain in 2013,” said Troy Geuther, managing director of international operations and vice president, Firestone Building Products. The new facility will expand production and distribution of polyiso foam, the company’s polyiso foam insulation used in commercial construction.

Poland: Paroc Group has upgraded its mineral wool plant in Trzemeszno to increase its production capacity with an investment of over Euro13m. “Up till now, some of the Paroc’s technical insulation solutions had been produced only in Finland,” said Joakim Westerlund, Chief Operating Officer at Paroc. “Shipping from Poland, combined with the fact that more products can now be transported on one truck thanks to new technology, not only will save time and resources of our customers, but also fits in our sustainability and energy efficiency policy.”

The investment marks a continuation of Paroc’s long-term development strategy in its Baltic and Central Europe area. Since 1998, when the Polish Paroc production plant was set-up, the company has invested over Euro140m in the Trzemeszno plant.