Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Owens Corning’s insulation business earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) fell by 30% year-on-year to US$57m in the first half of 2019 from US$81m in the same period in 2018. Its net sales dropped by 2% to US$1.25bn from US$1.28bn. Overall sales and EBIT, across all business lines, grew slightly driving by the roofing business.

Hungary: Bodrogi Bau is upgrading its polystyrene insulation plant in Szeged. It is spending Euro3m on building two new production lines, according to the MTI-Eco news agency. One of the new lines will be used to manufacture polystyrene insulation blocks. The project is supported by a Euro1.5m grant from the European Union (EU) and the local government. The company runs businesses in construction, building material retail, planning and real estate.

North America: A survey by the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA) shows that its members used around 1.17Mt of recycled glass to produce residential, commercial and industrial thermal and acoustical insulation in 2018. The survey included data from both US and Canadian production plants. Producers also used over 0.45Mt of recycled blast furnace slag in the production of thermal and acoustic insulation.

UK: The Insulation Manufacturers Association (IMA) has appointed Stuart Norris as its president. The association is a representative body for the rigid polyisocyanurate (PIR) and polyurethane (PUR) insulation industry in the UK.

Norris is a Senior Product Development Engineer at Portakabin where he is involved in the design and delivery of both temporary and permanent offsite building solutions across a wide range of building sectors. He holds a degree in Product Design from the University of Huddersfield. He also sits on the Technical Committee for the Modular and Portable Building Association (MPBA).

US: IQ Fibers plans to build a cellulose insulation plant at West Easton in Pennsylvania. The project will have an investment from US$5.4m and it will create 43 jobs. The company has received funding from the Department of Community and Economic Development to develop the unit.

“We are extremely proud of our facility and the highly engineered cellulose fibre products we manufacture. With the market demand for more environmentally-friendly solutions, we believe this is the right time and place to launch our company. We greatly appreciate the assistance of the Governor’s Action Team and Governor Wolf’s commitment for business growth,” said George Day, chief executive officer (CEO) of IQ Fibers.

IQ Fibers is a start-up cellulose fibre manufacturer. Its line of products includes high-quality cellulose insulation and absorbents that are sold to distributors, contract installers and end users, as well as government agencies, utility companies, and related programs.