Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

Mongolia: Mongol Basalt LLC and Italy's Gamma Meccanica have signed a US$18m agreement to produce mineral wool insulation materials and purchase a production line.
The agreement was signed during the visit of Mongolian Minister of Industry Dondogdorj Erdenbat to Italy. Mongol Basalt has also entered loan negotiations with the Intesa Sanpaolo banking group to receive funds to buy equipment. The loan will be guaranteed by the Italian Export Credit Agency (SACE).

Brazil: Sulzer has received an order from Innova for the delivery of a foam production system with Sulzer's extruder-based melt impregnation technology. The 24,000t/yr plant in Triunfo, Brazil, will produce expanded polystyrene (EPS). Commercial production is planned to start in the middle of 2016.

Videolar-Innova is the first and only petrochemical company in Brazil to integrate the production units for ethylbenzene, toluene, styrene monomer and polystyrene into a single industrial plant. The newly-formed company is the biggest producer of styrene monomer and polystyrene in Brazil. With Sulzer's support, Videolar-Innova will enter the South American insulation market. The company will provide strategic downstream integration with unique production capabilities, in a region that still imports most of its EPS.

Denmark: Rockwool's profit rose by 34% year-on-year to Euro19m in the third quarter of 2015. Its operating profit fell from Euro51.5m to Euro31.9m and its turnover dropped from Euro580m to Euro571m. Rockwool has now downgraded its growth for 2015 to 1 – 2% and its profit to Euro147m.

CEO Jens Birgersson said that Rockwool's most important markets, Germany and France, were challenging, while there is positive development in the US and in Northern Europe. The company has invested Euro36.2m in a new ceiling board production plant in Mississippi, US. Rockwool is implementing a savings strategy aimed at making annual savings of Euro49.9m as of 2017.

US: The Rockfon unit of Denmark's Rockwool International will build a US$42m plant in Marshall, Indiana to make acoustic ceiling tiles. The 130,000ft² plant will employ at least 90 people. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2016, with the plant opening in the middle of 2017 on a 404,686m² site at the Chickasaw Trail Industrial Park shared with corporate sibling Roxul.

The new plant will make ceiling tiles with stone wool insulation made at the neighbouring Roxul plant, which also owned by Rockwool. That US$160m plant opened in 2014 and employs 150 workers. It will be the fifth Rockfon plant worldwide and the first in North America. John Medio, Rockfon's President of the Americas, said that the plant is, "Extending global capacity and meeting the growing demand for Rockfon's stone wool acoustic ceiling products in North America."

The Mississippi Development Authority will give the company US$2.4m for infrastructure and worker training, with the Appalachian Region Commission providing US$300,000. The Tennessee Valley Authority and Marshall County are providing undisclosed assistance. Rockfon has been granted a 10-year tax exemption from non-school property taxes.

Australia: Fletcher Building is considering selling its insulation business, which could see the manufacturer of Pink Batts get a new owner. The company said that further asset sales were on the cards, although it did not specify insulation.

"Fletcher Building is undertaking an ongoing review of its business portfolio with a focus on lifting operational and financial performance and pursuing organic growth. The review process invariably leads to speculation on a range of possible outcomes. The company is aware of its continuous disclosure obligations and will promptly communicate to the market if or when there are substantive matters required to be disclosed," said a statement from Fletcher Building.

Fletcher holds its insulation assets, Tasman Insulation and Fletcher Insulation, in its light building products division. Fletcher Building has a market capitalisation of US$3.45bn and it is Australasia's biggest supplier of building and construction materials. These include laminates, cement, pipes and roofing. It has just won the New Zealand International Convention Centre contract in Auckland, as well as the contract to build Precinct Properties' US$396m, 38-level Downtown Tower at the foot of Queen St on the waterfront.

Fletcher Building's Chief Executive Mark Adamson made it clear at the 2015 annual meeting that he had not bought any new assets since starting in the job, but had instead been dealing with the difficult legacy of selling businesses that were either underperforming or not up to expectations. "In my time in the job, we have not made one single acquisition," said Adamson. "I have had to deal with what we have today. Profitability is improving, maybe not as fast as anyone would like."