Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Kingspan Insulated Panels North America is building a new K-Roc mineral wool insulation plant in Mattoon, Illinois. The producer expects the plant to commence operations in early 2025. It will be equipped with a solar power plant and rainwater harvesting system, recycling system and electric vehicle charging stations. When operational, it will employ 50 people. Kingspan’s K-Roc mineral wool insulation offers a three-hour fire rating in wall applications and one-hour fire rating in ceiling applications.

Kingspan Insulated Panels North America president Alswinn Kieboom said "As a result of continued growth and optimism for the future, the addition of this new facility complements our existing footprint in North America, giving us better access to our customer base. We are looking forward to launching this new site and having a presence in the Midwest."

Russia/Kazakhstan: TechnoNICOL plans to invest US$109m in capital expenditure (CAPEX) in Russia and Kazakhstan throughout 2024. The sum is triple TechnoNICOL’s 2023 CAPEX, according to the company. US$27.3m will go towards two projects in Kazakhstan: the completion of the upcoming Almaty insulation plant, scheduled for September 2024, and the start of construction of the upcoming Karaganda insulation plant. The remainder of the sum will fund other projects, including the construction of the upcoming Rostov insulation plant and an expansion to the Chelyabinsk insulation plant, both in Russia.

Mongolia: Mongol Basalt produced 2248t of stone wool insulation in 2024, which it says helped Mongolians to reduce their energy consumption by 78GW. Nonetheless, the producer’s sales fell by 20%, amid a 35% drop in its prices.

During 2023, Mongol Basalt commenced construction of a new production line at its Ulaanbaatar insulation plant. The UB Post newspaper has reported that the company expects the upgrade to double its capacity to 50,000t/yr, and to introduce new energy-efficient solutions.

Serbia: Knauf Insulation Serbia has completed a Euro20m upgrade to its Surdulica stone wool plant. Production has restarted at the unit, according to SeeNews. The company has replaced equipment on the production line and chimney, and installed a new palletisation machine and a desulfurisation system, thereby increasing the recycling capacity of the factory. The investment also includes a new logistics building and a truck parking area. The company plans to hire 15 new employees from May 2023 to support the changes.

Romania: Knauf Insulation has broken ground on the construction of a second insulation plant at the site of its existing Târnăveni mineral wool insulation plant. SeeNews has reported that, when commissioned in 2024, the new plant will have a production capacity of 100Mm²/yr of mineral wool insulation. It will also create 100 new jobs. Knauf Insulation said that the project will bring its total investments in the Târnăveni site to Euro135m.

Serbia: Masterplast has concluded a deal to acquire the outstanding 49% stake in mineral wool insulation producer Masterwool MW-1. Masterwool MW-1 is currently building a new Euro20m mineral wool insulation plant in Vojvodina. The project is supported by a grant from Hungarian state-owned Hungarian Export Promotion Agency (HEPA).

Masterplast plans to commence a Euro50m growth phase in the near-term future. It expects its sales to drop in the first half of 2023 due to negative trends in new home construction. However, it expects recent new expanded polystyrene (EPS) and extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation capacity to partly offset this.

Croatia: Knauf Insulation plans to invest Euro120m to build a second production line at its Novi Marof stone wool insulation plant. HINA News has reported that Knauf Insulation managing partner Alexander Knauf met government officials to discuss the company's plan. The producer says that the new line will create 70 direct jobs.

Denmark: Rockwool’s net sales grew by 27% year-on-year to Euro3.91bn in 2022 from Euro3.09bn in 2021. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 6% to Euro638m from Euro602m. The group reported a strong start to 2022 with high demand for its stone wool insulation products. In the second half of the year it noted a decline in construction activity in key markets. However, it increased its prices leading to increased sales. By region the group said that sales grew in Europe and Asian markets, were flat in the US and declined in China.

Chief executive officer Jens Birgersson said, “Looking forward, we expect construction activity to continue slowing down in the coming period. We anticipate the energy efficiency agenda in both Europe and North America will accelerate renovation rates in the mid-term and create higher demand for our circular and non-combustible stone wool. We will continue to invest in more capacity to support our long-term growth”.

Together with the group’s chair Thomas Kähler, he also defended the company’s decision to continue the ownership of a subsidiary in Russia. “If we were to depart Russia, our factories and the intellectual property rights to our unique technology would most likely be nationalised or otherwise transferred to local players. Since the factories operate independently of our head office, they would continue to operate - just under different ownership. It therefore remains our view that retaining the business in Russia is the least bad option available to us. And of course, we will continue to comply with all international sanctions.”

Rockwool said that it had added production capacity for its Grodan agricultural stone wool range at its plant in Toronto, Canada and capacity for its Rockfon stone wool ceiling panel range at its Cigacice plant in Poland. In China it had opened a new plant at Qinyuan in December 2022 to replace its mineral wool unit at Guangzhou, which closed in September 2022. It also reported that plans to build a new stone wool plant at Soissons in France had been delayed due to a local legal challenge. Notable upgrades in 2022 included the start of a conversion project to electric melting technology from fossil fuels at the Flumroc plant in Switzerland, with a commissioning date scheduled for 2024. This project follows a similar one at the Moss plant in Norway that was completed in 2020.

Argentina: Saint-Gobain has completed its acquisition of stone wool insulation producer Termica San Luis. Termica San Luis employs 40 people at its San Luis insulation plant. It is the market-leading stone wool insulation producer in Argentina.

UK: Denmark-based Rockwool has announced plans to replace natural gas used in its Bridgend stone wool insulation plant's combustion systems and curing ovens with green hydrogen produced on-site. Engineering company Marubeni Europower and consultancy Mott MacDonald will also be involved in the project. H2 News has reported that the work will rely on US$462,000 in government funding.

Rockwool's managing director Rafael Rodriguez said “The group has set ambitious decarbonisation targets, verified and approved by the Science Based Target Initiative, and in line with this, we are looking forward to enhancing our own understanding about the potential for green hydrogen use in our business.”