Insulation industry news from Global Insulation
TechnoNicol to upgrade Khabarovsk stonewool insulation plant
22 October 2021Russia: TechnoNicol plans to carry out an upgrade at its Khabarovsk basalt mineral wool insulation plant. The planned project will fully automate production at the plant and double its capacity. The producer expects the upgrade to improve safety, sustainability and product quality.
Rockwool to install new line at Vyborg insulation plant
21 October 2021Russia: Rockwool plans to install a new mineral wool production line at its Vyborg insulation plant in Leningrad oblast. The producer says that the expanded plant will have 50% lower CO2 emissions than before the expansion due to an efficiency increasing upgrade to its melting technology.
Rockwool plans to invest Euro200m in expansions and efficiency improving upgrades in Russia ‘in the coming years,’ creating 70 new jobs.
BCI Holding to expand Egyptian polyurethane plant and build new plants in Algeria and Nigeria
09 September 2021Africa: UAE-based BCI Holding plans to expand its polyurethane (PUR) plant in Egypt. Arab Finance News has reported that the company also intends to establish to new PU plants, in Algeria and Nigeria. For the realisation of these plans, it will partly rely on a US$30.0m financing package from the International Finance Corporation. The PU supplier expects the moves to generate 80 new direct jobs. It said its strategy aims to combat poverty and create jobs by supporting the growth of the private sector in the Middle East and Africa. It added that the new plants will also help strengthen regional integration and technology transfer, and the development of regional supply chains.
Belgium: Etex is investing Euro1.2m on an upgrade to its Sint-Niklaas high performance insulation plant. The project is intended to increase the plant’s capacity by 30% in order to benefit cold supply chain markets currently supporting vaccine transport. The company estimates that it will generate over Euro6m in sales from its ‘high-performance, ultra-thin’ insulation products used in both building applications and passively cooled containers for vaccine transport.
Head of Industry Steven Heytens said “Our products contribute to global energy efficiency and create sustainable value for our customers. Driven by the European Union Green Deal, we expect the demand for thin insulation solutions for building and cool logistics applications to increase strongly in the coming years. This investment fits with our growth strategy and confirms our commitment to strengthening our European position in high performance microporous insulation.”
YBS Insulation receives Euro290,000 loan
20 April 2021UK: YBS Insulation has received a loan worth Euro290,000. The producer plans to use the funds to realise planned growth. It plans to upgrade and increase capacity at its reflective insulation plant in Derbyshire. The Midland Investment Fund and East & South East Midlands Debt Finance Fund provided the loan.
Slovakia: US-based Johns Manville has commissioning of a 3t/hr glass fibre recycling unit at its Trnava engineered product plant. The company says that the facility will recycle waste glass fibres from continuous filament glass fibre recycling, reducing landfill waste by 10,000t/yr. The total cost of the installation is around Euro10m.
Europe/Asia environment, health and safety manager Elena Hrivikova said, “The primary goal of this investment is to achieve a tangible positive environmental impact by drastically reducing the landfilling of glass fibre waste. This project is part of our response to the European Commission’s Zero Waste programme and our overall target for sustainable management of the planet’s natural resources.”
Johns Manville’s Engineering Products division manufactures synthetic and glass fiber nonwoven products for construction such as insulation and gypsum board facers.
Austrotherm makes Euro10m investment in plants
10 September 2020Austria: Austrotherm has announced the launch of Fit for the Future, a capital expenditure (CAPEX) plan worth Euro10m in investments in its Pinkafeld and Purbach, Burgenland plants. The plans consist of a new office building with training centre and workshop at the Pinkafeld plant, “intended to illustrate how sustainable construction for office buildings should be implemented in the future,” and a 3600m2 finished goods warehouse at the Purbach plant, as well as ‘numerous digitisation and automation projects’ across both plants.
Managing Director Klaus Haberfeller said, “Despite all the adversities of the Covid-19 outbreak, we have started an investment programme that will make our two Burgenland locations fit for the future. We are investing in the modernisation of the infrastructure and in optimising the processes at the locations in order to increase efficiency and occupational safety, and, as a positive side effect, benefit the regional construction industry.”
Serbia: Austria-based Austrotherm has started operation on a new extruded polystyrene (XPS) production line at its Nis plant. The upgrade cost Euro3.5m and has created 15 new jobs at the site. It originally purchased the expanded polystyrene (EPS) and XPS plant in 2005 and it exports products to Albania, Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Bulgaria.
“We are particularly proud that we were able to complete the capacity expansion in Serbia as planned, despite all the Corona adversities,” said Klaus Haberfellner, managing director of Austrotherm.
Rockwool boosts 2019 profit by 7.5% year-on-year
06 February 2020Denmark: Rockwool’s post-tax profit for 2019 was Euro285m, up by 7.5% from Euro265m in 2018. Sales rose by 3.2% to Euro2.8bn from Euro2.7bn. The company’s insulation section saw ‘mixed market conditions’ but ‘showed modest growth’ over the period, thanks in particular to state-supported energy efficiency improvement in construction practices generating increased demand in the South-West Europe region.
Rockwool said that it invested in long-term growth, having opened a plant in Romania in late-2019, with a capacity expansion to a German plant due to come online in mid-2020 and a further plant in the US to follow in early 2021. Rockwool Group chairman Henrik Brandt and CEO Jens Birgersson said, “For the fifth year in a row, our customer satisfaction scores increased.” Satisfaction rose by 14% year-on-year.
BewiSynbra acquires Norrköping XPS insulation plant
13 January 2020Sweden: Denmark-based BewiSynbra has announced its acquisition of an extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation plant in Norrköping after its conditional takeover of the owner for Euro5.6m including BewiSynbra’s assumption of its debts. The company says it will expand XPS production and install an expanded polystyrene (EPS) insulation line at the plant in late 2020, as a result of which it will close its nearby Norrtälje EPS insulation plant. It expects to conclude the deal in February 2020.