Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Germany: Johns Manville (JM), a Berkshire Hathaway company, has celebrated the inauguration of a state-of-the-art polyester spunbond production line at its plant in Berlin, Germany.

The new Euro32m line is part of a strategic plan to support the growing demand for high-end polyester filtration media. The new line utilises newly-developed proprietary spinning technology and will increase the Berlin plant's spunbond lightweight capacity by more than 40%.

"The new capacity at our Berlin plant will benefit Johns Manville's global customer base," said Mary Rhinehart, president and CEO. "Customers will have even greater access to our high-quality filtration products and to a new generation of spunbond filter media for cabin air, air pollution control and liquid filtration applications. This new lines also puts Johns Manville in a prime position to handle continued growth and customer demand in the many global markets we serve."

The Berlin site was founded in 1919 as 'Spinnstofffabrik Zehlendorf AG.' In 1960, Hoechst acquired the plant and in 1967 changed the production from Perlon (artificial silk) to spunbond and filaments polyester. In 1999, JM acquired the Berlin plant from Hoechst Trevira. Plant employees produce and market Evalith™ polyester spunbond nonwovens mainly for the filtration, roofing and geotextile industry.

Luxembourg: Armacell is now the first manufacturer of flexible technical insulation materials to present environmental product declarations (EPDs), which are based on an independent life cycle assessment (LCA).

EPDs are becoming more important in the construction industry as they provide a transparent, independent and reproducible analysis of the environmental impacts of construction products and give detailed information with sound data and figures. As a 'sustainability passport,' EPDs form the basis for designing green buildings in accordance with certification schemes such as LEED, BREEAM or DGNB.

Comparing the primary energy input identified in the Armacell LCA with the energy saving achieved shows that using Armaflex insulation materials saves 140 times more energy than is needed for their manufacturing, transport and disposal. The energy input needed to manufacture Armaflex is paid off after just 50 days.

"With the EPDs we create a unique degree of transparency for our Armaflex products. We provide architects, specifiers and those inviting tenders with reliable information for designing sustainable building projects. At the same time we commit ourselves to continuing to improve the environmental friendliness of our products and thus sharpening our competitive edge," said Patrick Mathieu, CEO of the Armacell Group.

UK: Industry leaders have attacked the EU's decision to outlaw Britain's reduced 5% VAT rate on energy-saving products such as insulation and solar panels, calling it 'perverse' and 'hypocritical.'

The European Court of Justice recently ruled that Britain's longstanding reduced rate on the supply and installation of energy-saving products breached its VAT directive, which allows a reduced rate only in energy-saving products used in social housing projects, or as part of a social policy. It means millions of households could now have to pay the 20% rate when installing insulation, solar panels, wind turbines, controls for central heating and wood-fuelled boilers.

"The government will study the judgment carefully and consider next steps," said a government spokesperson.

Dave Snowden, chief executive of the Sustainable Energy Association, accused the EU Commission of 'the most astonishing hypocrisy' and said the ruling was 'perverse.' Snowden added that the EU's decision is, "Contrary to almost every principle and policy created to reduce consumers' energy consumption, cut emissions and help boost economic recovery across the EU."

John Sinfield, Northern Europe managing director for Knauf Insulation, called the ruling 'perverse' and 'nonsensical' and said it was a, "Contradiction where consumption of a valuable resource is rewarded and efficiency penalised."

Pedro Guertler, head of research at the Association for the Conservation of Energy, criticised the European Court of Justice for taking a 'very narrow interpretation' of the VAT directive and said the ruling meant that, "Everything will cost 14% more."

Richard Twinn, policy adviser at the UK Green Building Council, said that the ruling was 'ultimately bad news' for the UK. He added that the ruling would, "Push up the cost of ECO, reduce the measures that can be funded through the Green Deal and could deter people from installing solar PV and heat pumps."

"While it is true, as asserted by the UK, that a policy of housing improvement may produce social effects, the extension of the scope of the reduced rate of VAT to all residential property cannot be described as essentially social," said the European Court of Justice in a statement.

Brazil: According to See News, co-founder and commercial director Rafael Safra said that Brazilian sound insulation and rubber flooring manufacturer Aubicon Industria e Comercio Ltda is exploring options to sell a stake of its company to an external investor.

Safra said that the sale would enable the company to boost research and development spending and grow its customer base in South America. He added that Aubicon had commenced exports to other countries in the region in 2015.

Aubicon would prefer a foreign strategic investor, but would also consider a deal for a minority stake with a private equity group or a green investment fund, according to Safra. Teaming up with a green fund is a logical step for the company because most of its products are made with recycled tyre rubber as the raw material. In the case of financial investors, Aubicon would not be interested unless the potential buyer agreed to participate actively in the company's growth strategy development.

Thailand: According to Reuters, Siam Cement Group (SCG) expects its paper and packaging business to rise by 5 – 10% in 2015 as higher demand from southeast Asia helps offset slow growth at home.

SCG expects domestic demand to rise by 1 – 2% in 2015 due to weak consumption and poor exports, said Roongrote Rangsiyopash, president of its packaging unit. "Domestic demand is not good. Growth in Vietnam should be around 5% and in the Philippines it will be around 6 – 7%," said Rangsiyopash. He said that he expects domestic demand to improve in the second half of 2015 on hopes of better economic conditions, while southeast Asian markets are expected to grow by 5% or more.

SCG had US$2bn of sales from paper and packaging business in 2014, accounting for 15% of its total sales. However, profit from the paper business fell by 30% year-on-year in January – March 2015 due to a weak margin and rising expenses.

According to The Nation, Rangsiyopash said that SCG Paper has been rebranded as SCG Packaging to reflect a shift of its business model to focus on offering a "total packaging solution." Rangsiyopash added that SCG Packaging would offer an integrated range of services for the evolving needs of consumers, primarily in southeast Asia. SCG Packaging is expected to contribute 80 – 90% of the combined paper and packaging sales in the next five years, up from 70 – 75% currently.

SCG, which has packaging production bases in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore, has invested to expand its packaging capacity in southeast Asia. In 2014 it acquired a 90% stake in PT Indoris Printingdo, which produces high-quality packaging in Indonesia. SCG is also investing US$122m to add 243,000t/yr of additional packaging paper production capacity in Vietnam. The expansion is expected to be complete in 2017 and will increase its capacity to 2.6Mt/yr in southeast Asia. SCG has also set aside a research and development budget of more than US$11.9m in 2015 to focus on high value-added packaging products that offer high margins.

According to The Nation, Siam Cement is also expanding in the non-paper packaging segment, such as flexible and rigid packaging made from plastics, among others. In 2015 it acquired a 22% stake in Prepack, a 14,000t/yr capacity flexible-packaging producer. Rangsiyopash said that the flexible and rigid packaging sectors were growing faster than the paper packaging market, by 6 – 7% year-on-year.