Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Russia: EuroChem, a fertilizer producer, and China’s ChemChina have signed a memorandum at the 2017 St Petersburg International Economic Forum on the creation of a joint venture to produce chemical industrial products including isocyanates, a precursor of spray polyurethane foam insulation. The cost of the project is estimated to be US$500m, according to the Tass News Agency. The joint venture will also produce propylene oxides for the use in the development of synthetic lubricants.

The companies plan to start the collaboration by forming a working group to further evaluate the technical possibilities of the project and will carry out a financial and legal examination of the project. Once complete the first project will be an upgrade to EuroChem’s Novomoskovskiy Azot plant in the Tula region. Products from the plant will be targeted at the Russian market.

Russia: TechnoNicol plans to invest US$2.3m towards upgrading its mineral wool insulation plant in Chelyabinsk. Just under US$0.9m was invested in the plant in 2016, according to the Kommersant newspaper. The unit supplies products in the Ural Federal District as well as to the Perm region, the Orenburg region, Bashkortostan and Udmurtia.

Russia: Rockwool has completed an upgrade of its stone wool insulation plant at Troitsk, in Chelyabinsk region. The unit will use Power+ technology with enhanced micro-distribution of the binder and optimised fibre-spinning technology on the production line. These improvements are intended to improve the final product’s homogeneity and performance properties.

Denmark: Bjørn Høi Jensen, the chairman of Rockwool, has announced that he will not be standing for re-election at the company’s annual general meeting in April 2017. He said that as he had met his goals to review the management group, start a new growth plan and introduce an ‘extensive’ improvement in results that he was standing down earlier than planned. He originally became chairman in 2014.

Rockwool’s external net sales for its insulation division dropped by 2% to Euro1.63bn in 2016 from Euro1.66bn in 2015. In local currencies the company calculated a slight rise of 0.7% for its net sales. However, its overall profit nearly doubled to Euro166m from Euro90m and its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 21% to Euro389m from Euro322m. It blamed the poor sales on the industrial and technical insulation industries and the slow development of construction in Russia in both new build and renovation. In a statement Jensen described 2016 as a year ‘marked by tough conditions.’

The insulation and building materials producer also announced that it was planning to build three new production plants including a stone wool factory in Mississippi, US. Land acquisitions for the projects are expected to be completed in 2017.

Russia: TechnoNicol increased its production of stone wool by almost 10% to 11Mm³ in 2016 due to new plants, new products and an expanded export portfolio. The company opened two new plants in Rostov-on-Don and Khabarovsk as well as upgrading its equipment at its existing plants. Over US$103m was invested in the production of basalt insulation in 2016.

The insulation producer opened its Khabarovsk plant in the Far Eastern Federal District of the country in August 2016. It announced in late January 2017 that the plant reached its projected production capacity of 0.75Mm³/yr of basalt insulation. Since this plant was opened the company has started exporting insulation materials to China and Canada. It also plans to target Japan, South Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam.

Russia: Finland’s Paroc has launched its Extra Light stone wool insulation product. The release is part of a strategy to diversify its offering to the Russian insulation and construction market. The insulation producer operates an insulation plant at Tverskaya Oblast.

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.

Russia: Rockwool division manager Henrik Frank Nielsen expects the Russian market to grow eventually despite a poor market for insulation materials at present, a troubled local economy and looming international political risks. He told Danish newspaper Børsen that Russia is still both a healthy and profitable market but that it is difficult to make long-term plans in the country. The Russian market for insulation materials for the construction sector decreased by 15% in 2015 and Nielsen expects an equally high decrease for 2016.

Russia: TechnoNicol has opened a Euro27.6m mineral wool insulation production plant in the Khabarovsk region. The plant will have a production capacity of 0.75Mm3, according to Prime News. The products will be sold locally and via export. The company plans to export 20% of its entire output to China in 2019. The insulation producer expects the payback period for the plant to take seven years.