Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Johns Manville has appointed Bob Wamboldt, currently the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Roofing Systems, as the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Insulation Systems. He will succeed Fred Stephan, who is leaving the company.

Wamboldt joined Johns Manville in 2003 and has held leadership positions in the company’s Engineered Products business and in Roofing Systems. He began as Strategic Accounts Manager and later worked as Vice President and General Manager of Engineered Products North America and as Leader for the North American Fibers business in the Engineered Products Group. He has led the Roofing Systems business since 2011. Before joining Johns Manville, Wamboldt worked for 16 years at PPG with roles in their Fiber Glass and Coatings divisions. He holds a degree in chemistry from Lehigh University and is a certified Black Belt in the Six Sigma process improvement methodology.

Russia: TechnoNicol increased its production of stone wool by almost 10% to 11Mm³ in 2016 due to new plants, new products and an expanded export portfolio. The company opened two new plants in Rostov-on-Don and Khabarovsk as well as upgrading its equipment at its existing plants. Over US$103m was invested in the production of basalt insulation in 2016.

The insulation producer opened its Khabarovsk plant in the Far Eastern Federal District of the country in August 2016. It announced in late January 2017 that the plant reached its projected production capacity of 0.75Mm³/yr of basalt insulation. Since this plant was opened the company has started exporting insulation materials to China and Canada. It also plans to target Japan, South Korea, Mongolia and Vietnam.

Turkmenistan: The Turkmen Industry Ministry has extended a tender for construction of a thermal insulation plant in the Turkmenbashi district of the Balkan region. Bids will be accepted until 7 March 2017, according to the Trend News Agency.

Russia: Finland’s Paroc has launched its Extra Light stone wool insulation product. The release is part of a strategy to diversify its offering to the Russian insulation and construction market. The insulation producer operates an insulation plant at Tverskaya Oblast.

UK: The British Rigid Urethane Foam Manufacturers' Association (BRUFMA) has called for the government to ensure that any new house building campaigns deliver energy efficient buildings and continue to increase the building standards for the sector. BRUFMA was responding to the publication of a White Paper or government report on the local market entitled ‘Fixing our broken housing market.’ The association recognised that the White Paper highlighted a need to continually review the current energy performance standards with regard to climate change targets and to domestic fuel poverty. It added that this should be extended to include the performance in flood risk areas of housing and the materials used in their construction.

‘The White Paper launches a consultation with a range of recommendations to increase numbers of homes being built in the UK. However, there are likely to be many conflicting views so I hope the government doesn’t use this as a way of kicking the problem into the long grass. However many houses are built we must ensure that all new housing is highly energy efficient in line with our climate change objectives. Just because there is a rush to build shouldn’t be an excuse to lower the quality of the thermal performance. And we certainly don’t want to have to come back and retrofit in 20 years because the houses we build today do not meet tomorrow’s requirements,” said Simon Storer, the chief executive of BRUFMA.