Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

UK: SIG has agreed to sell its Building Solutions division to Kingspan Group for Euro42m. Building Solutions is a UK manufacturer and distributor of building envelope solutions operating through brands including Steadmans, United Roofing Products, Trimform Products, and Advanced Cladding & Insulation. SIG decided to sell the division following a strategic review in 2017. Proceeds from the sale will be used to reduce SIG’s debts.

Hungary: MOL Group and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions have laid the foundation stone at a new polyol plant being built at Tiszaújváros. MOL Group is investing Euro1.2bn in the project. It is expected to be commissioned in 2021 and will produce around 200,000t/yr of polyols.

The new Tiszaújváros complex will produce polyether polyols using technologies such as the HPPO process (propylene oxide from hydrogen peroxide) developed by ThyssenKrupp and Evonik. Polyols produced at the new plant will be potentially used as a precursor chemical in many industries, including polyurethane building insulation.

“This investment project will make MOL Group one of the most important players in the region’s chemical industry, with MOL being the only Central and Eastern European company to control the entire value chain from crude oil extraction to polyol production,” said Zsolt Hernádi, the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of MOL.

US: Owens Corning has appointed the former Cabot Corporation executive vice president, chief financial officer and president of the Americas region Eddie Cordeiro to its board of directors. He will be tasked with bringing his 25 years’ financial and operational experience to the operations of the global insulation, roofing and fibreglass composite materials leader.

Turkey: A fire broke out in an outside area and spread to the main factory and adjacent commercial property at Hunter’s Istanbul polyurethane (PU) plant. The company has stated that nobody was harmed and monitoring for any offsite environmental impacts is underway.

France: Knauf Insulation France has appointed Yann Ditsch as its managing director. He holds experience in the French construction market having worked as Country Sales Director for Knauf in France since 2011. Prior to this he worked for Saint-Gobain, Rockwool France and US Gypsum. Ditsch, aged 50 years, holds a masters degree in marketing and communication from the ESCP Europe (École supérieure de commerce de Paris).