Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

New Zealand: Fletcher Building will close its Christchurch insulation plant, as it consolidates its Tasman Insulations operations in a ‘highly competitive market.’ The proposal would see 29 Christchurch factory workers lose their jobs manufacturing Pink Batts insulation, while its Auckland factory will become a round-the-clock operation. Current Christchurch-based customer service, sales and warehousing roles will be unaffected, with two new jobs created, while nine further positions at the Auckland plant will be offered.

"Consolidation is in the best interest of our people and our customers," said Tim Richards, chief executive of building products. "We are operating in a highly competitive market, impacted by an increase in volume of imported product and a general reduction in demand for insulation following changes to EECA's home insulation programme in 2013."

US: Knauf Insulation will close a Mississippi plant it recently acquired because of the high cost to upgrade the facility. Knauf has announced that 110 employees at the plant in Mineral Wells, Mississippi, had been given notice that production would end at the site.

“In the two months since the acquisition of Guardian Insulation, we have conducted a detailed analysis of our new footprint,” Knauf Insulation North America CEO Mark Andrews said. “The analysis examined the investments required to upgrade and expand both the quality and quantity of product being manufactured in our facilities. Unfortunately, the results of this analysis have led us to make the difficult decision to close the Mineral Wells plant. This morning, we started sharing the news with Mineral Wells employees that we are ending all production at the plant today.”

According to Andrews, the main drivers were the structure and condition of the Mineral Wells facility. No reasonable amount of capital investment in the plant could bring it up to the expected standards. The closure will allow Knauf to invest in its remaining facilities. Andrews added that Knauf was committed to retaining and serving its customers out of its other plants.

US: Roxul Inc, part of Rockwool International, has opened its first US manufacturing facility near Byhalia, Mississippi. The 600,000ft², US$160m plant was first announced in 2012 and broke ground in May 2013. Production began on Roxul's stone wool insulation products in June 2014. The company will employ 150 people when it reaches full capacity.

"When conducting our site selection due diligence, it was clear the state of Mississippi and Marshall County provided us the optimal location from both a manufacturing and distribution standpoint," said Trent Ogilvie, Roxul's chairman and managing director. "The support that Roxul has received from the community and the state has been terrific. We couldn't have found a better place to call home."

Russia: TechnoNicol Corporation is expanding its insulation materials capacity at an existing plant in Yurga in the Kemerovo Region of southern Russia with investments totalling Euro18.6m. This includes the launch, which is due in 2015, of a new 200,000m³/yr XPS line. The line cost around Euro7.45m and will produce the company's full range of TechnoNicol XPS products. Its installation is set to meet growing demand for insulation products associated with major regional infrastructure projects, including the 29th Winter Universiade being held in Krasnoyarsk in 2019, as well as road construction and oil and gas industry infrastructure schemes.

In September 2014 TechnoNocil is due to complete another Euro9.4m investment at Yurga plant with the upgrade of its basalt wool insulation, leading to a 29% increase in output. Products from the plant will be targeted at Russian regions including western and eastern Siberia and the central Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous region, as well as eastern Kazakhstan, north-western China and Mongolia, according to TechNicol's CEO Vladimir Markov.

Russia: Germany's Knauf has launched a new insulation materials plant in the Tyumen Region of the Urals Federal District in Russia at a total investment cost of US$83m. The installed capacity of the enterprise is 45,000t/yr. It will create 200 jobs.

Kazakhstan/China/Russia: Russia's TechnoNicol will invest Euro12.4m to build a 300,000m²/yr capacity extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) insulation plant in the Karaganda Region of Kazakhstan. The plant will start production in 2016. Its products will be supplied to all regions of Kazakhstan and south Asia.

China: Chemicals producer Evonik Industries has started operations at a new 230,000t/yr capacity hydrogen peroxide plant in July 2014 in Jilin City, Jilin Province. Evonik invested more than US$139m in the site to raise its global capacity for hydrogen peroxide production to more than 900,000t/yr.

"This investment further consolidates our market leadership for hydrogen peroxide," said Klaus Engel, executive board chairman of Evonik Industries. Evonik will supply hydrogen peroxide from Jilin direct to the neighbouring propylene oxide plant run by Jishen Chemical Industry Co Ltd. Jishen will use the hydrogen peroxide to manufacture propylene oxide on the basis of the HPPO process. Propylene oxide is mainly used to make polyurethane intermediates that are used in manufacturing insulation materials for the construction and refrigeration industry.

"We are registering a great deal of demand around the world for our efficient HPPO process," said Gregor Hetzke, head of the advanced intermediates business unit at Evonik. "The Jilin plant represents another milestone on the way to establishing hydrogen peroxide as an eco-friendly oxidant for the process of chemical synthesis. The project is also proof of how we use new technologies to systematically drive forward our growth."

Evonik developed the HPPO process together with ThyssenKrupp Uhde. The new plant in Jilin is the second of its kind. The HPPO process allows the eco-friendly oxidant to also be used in the direct chemical synthesis of propylene oxide. The benefits of the new method are that it requires much lower investment costs, has high production efficiency and has excellent environmental compatibility.

Another large Evonik plant, a US$136m integrated production complex for isophorone and isophorone diamine, started trial operations in Shanghai in May 2014 and will be officially inaugurated in July 2014. The complex will have a capacity of 50,000t/yr.

"The new plant continues our successful growth story in isophorone chemistry," said Patrik Wohlhauser, executive board member and chief operating officer of Evonik Industries. "We are now represented in the three major economic zones, Europe, North America and Asia."

US: Rockwool has started production at its Marshall County, Mississippi mineral wool plant. The US$164m plant, the Danish insulation producer's first in the US, is expected to be fully operational by mid-2015. The plant will employ 150 people and produce more than 100,000t/yr for the North American market.

"The new plant will enable us to increase our sales for insulation products in the USA. We have been experiencing double-figure growth rates in the North American market over recent years and there is still considerable potential for growth in the market, which is mainly dominated by glass fibre and plastic foam products," said Trent Ogilvie, President of Roxul, Rockwool's subsidiary in North America. Over the last year the company has experienced such an increase in demand that the it has been forced to import from Europe.

China: Orient Paper Inc has commenced the final commercial production phase of its papermill 1 (PM1) renovation project, which produces insulation liner paper. PM1 has a designed production capacity of 50,000t/yr.

"We are very pleased to re-launch the renovated PM1 a few months earlier than our original schedule," said Zhenyong Liu, chairman and CEO of Orient Paper. "The purpose of our modernisation plan is not only to convert PM1 into a more energy-efficient production line, but also to produce higher profit margin products."

According to Liu, the insulation liner paper is used to sandwich certain insulation materials as a construction material for wall and floor insulation. It can also be combined with certain plastic woven cloth to manufacture new moisture-proof packaging materials for the transportation of books and magazines by the publishing industry in China. Both product applications are expected to benefit from stable market demand in the region.

UAE: Bayer Pearl, a polyurethane systems house joint venture between Bayer MaterialScience AG and Pearl Insulation Materials Industries LLC that was established in 2007, plans a significant investment including new technology and production.

Following the relocation of the regional offices and production facilities to Dubai Investment Park, Bayer Pearl has now engaged Amana Contracting and Steel Buildings to build a new state-of-the-art facility at the Investment Park. The new facility is expected to be complete in 2015 and will feature research, development and application laboratories, advanced manufacturing technologies and a demonstration centre.

"The Middle East is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Dubai serves as the ideal base for Bayer Pearl to further strengthen its presence in the region," said Thorsten Eschmeier, CEO of Bayer Pearl. "The site will host offices and operations and is strategically located close to Jebel Ali Port and the new Dubai World Central airport. Furthermore, the new site allows us to expand our competence in developing new applications and manufacturing processes for our materials in close collaboration with our customers."