Insulation industry news from Global Insulation
Price rises drive Rockwool’s sales and earnings in 2022
13 February 2023Denmark: 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.
TechnoNicol to build new stone wool plants in Russia and Kazakhstan
03 February 2022Russia: TechnoNicol plans to invest around Euro350m towards building two stone wool plants as well as other expanded production in other business areas including agricultural applications. A 1.5Mm3/yr stone wool plant will be built in the Novgorod special economic zone, according to the AK&M Information Agency. Construction of a new 1.4Mm3/yr stone wool plant near Almaty in Kazakhstan is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2022. Both project have a combined an investment of Euro127m. Additionally, the insulation producer is reportedly looking for a site to build an additional stone wool plant in the far east of Russia.
The company also plans in 2022 to launch a new production line for stone wool substrates for use in greenhouse farming at a plant in the Rostov region. Around Euro6m will be spent on the upgrade. Once complete the line will be able to supply the Southern Federal and South Caucasus districts. It will be TechnoNicol’s third production line for mineral wool substrates, joining plants at Ryazan and Tatarstan.
Recticel promotes agricultural panel product
08 November 2018Belgium: Recticel is promoting its Du.Panel X polyurethane panel product for the agricultural sector. It offers a lambda value of 0.020W/mK for panel thicknesses of 40 – 120mm and fire resistance with Euroclass B-s2,d0. The product is intended for using in livestock buildings and stables. It joins other agricultural products including Powerline, Cronus and Eurothane.