Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Denmark: Danish insulation materials producer Rockwool plans to invest Euro67m to modernise its plant in Øster Doense in Jutland. No further details have been released.

UAE: Strong demand for its products in the GCC states has prompted Emirates Extruded Polystyrene (EEP), a subsidiary of Dubai Investments, to announce plans to expand its production capacity within the next two years. The company currently exports to other GCC states and to regions beyond including India, Southeast Asia and Africa.

The upgrade will increase total capacity to approximately 2.4Mm²/yr and enable EEP to meet the 'burgeoning demand' in the export market for its unique extruded polystyrene sheets. The company has witnessed a phenomenal surge in demand amidst the ongoing construction activity in the UAE and other GCC markets, making its current production of around 1.2Mm²/yr of extruded polystyrene sheets quite inadequate to take care of future requirements.

EEP currently utilises 80% of its capacity and will have to step up production to catch up with demand. The additional capacity will come from a new production line that will cater to the predicted surge in demand for insulation materials once the Expo 2020 projects are activated in the next two years. The new line will be set up at EEP's 6235m² plot in Dubai Investments Park.

Thanks to a UAE Federal Law that enforces the use of energy-saving and environment-friendly building materials in the construction industry, it has become mandatory for many companies to use extruded polystyrene sheets for the insulation of roofs, walls and foundations.

US: To cater to industry demands, Trelleborg's offshore operation has consolidated its range of high performance thermal insulation materials to house them all under one brand, Vikotherm™.

"As sub-sea environments become more demanding, going deeper and further than ever before, temperatures and hydrostatic pressure become much greater," said Ben Wait, customer group manager with Trelleborg Offshore and Construction. "The demand for more sophisticated products that can cope with harsher environments is growing. This is certainly the case with our thermal insulation materials, so we've taken the strategic decision to group all of our solutions together to allow for easier product selection and ensure that all customer needs can be met in one place."

Trelleborg has supplied the subsea oil and gas industry for three decades, continuously researching to ensure that its products consistently meet the growing demands placed on them. As such, all solutions in the Vikotherm™ range will guarantee maintained flow rates, optimum productivity, reduced costs and protection against wax and hydrate formations. The featured products in the new portfolio include R2 and S1 materials, E1 and E2 epoxy syntactic foams, P7 non-mercury catalysed polyurethane, PT syntactic polypropylene tape, and G3 non-mercury syntactic polyurethane.

US: Installed Building Products Inc (IBP) has announced that Todd R Fry has joined the company as chief accounting officer and principal accounting officer, reporting directly to Michael Miller, the chief financial officer. Fry was formerly chief financial officer of Champion Industries during 1999 – 2014.

"I am pleased to welcome Fry to IBP as we continue to expand our operations," said Miller. "Todd is a highly accomplished financial professional and we believe his over 20 years of experience in key leadership positions, including 17 years at publicly traded companies, will help continue to strengthen our financial management. We look forward to leveraging his financial expertise as we continue to grow our business."

UK: The Construction Products Association (CPA) has appointed John Sinfield as its new chairman. Sinfield is managing director of Knauf Insulation in Northern Europe. The CPA represents the Euro48.6bn-turnover UK construction products and materials sector.

Sinfield replaces Geoff Cooper, chief executive of Travis Perkins, in the role. Sinfield said, "Given all the political uncertainty over the coming year, with regulatory doubt over energy security, costs and carbon measures, we need manufacturing to be underpinned by a vibrant, long-term, cross-party industrial strategy which enables the UK to capture supply chain advantages for firms here in this country. I look forward to leading efforts to help bring key players together to find a way forward."