
Insulation industry news from Global Insulation
France: Saint-Gobain plans to build a new glass wool production line at its Isover branded plant at Chemillé near Angers. The line is scheduled to start production in mid-2019. It is being built to meet rising demand in the French market for roof insulation products.
In addition, Saint-Gobain is planning to open new production lines at its plants in Azuqueca near Madrid in Spain and Vidalengo near Milan in Italy. These lines will open in spring and autumn 2018 respectively. Altogether Saint-Gobain has invested Euro45m in the upgrades with the majority placed in Chemillé.
Hungary: Building materials producer Masterplast has been awarded a Euro0.8m grant from the government for its foam insulation plant at Kal. The grant will be used as part of a Euro1.6m upgrade at the site, according to the MTI-Eco news agency.
BASF reports disruption to MDI production at Chongqing plant
15 December 2017China: BASF has blamed ‘force majeure’ for a disruption to the production of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) at its Chongqing plant due to a supply shortage of natural gas from its syngas supplier. BASF says it is unable to determine when it will be able to resume production as its syngas supplier has been unable to tell it when the input will be restored. The German-headquartered chemical multinational uses MDI to manufacture a number of products including insulation.
Michael Darr appointed as operations manager of Firestone Building Products plant in Waukesha
14 December 2017US: Michael Darr has been appointed as the operations manager of Firestone Building Products’ plant in Waukesha, Wisconsin. He previously worked as the plant manager for Bridgestone’s tyre plant in Wilson, North Carolina, according to the Wilson Daily Times newspaper. Firestone, a subsidiary of Bridgestone, purchased Gaco Western, a producer of insulation and roofing products, in April 2017 including the Waukesha site.
Superglass to spend Euro42m on upgrade to Stirling plant
11 December 2017UK: Russia’s TechnoNicol is to spend Euro42m towards upgrading its mineral wool plant in Stirling operated by Superglass. The investment will double the plant’s production capacity to 60,000t/yr. The upgrade work will include installing a new 187t furnace and curing ovens. Cooling, cutting and milling equipment will be replaced and an automatic packing system will be installed. Construction will start early in 2018.
“TechnoNicol’s backing is a real vote of confidence in Scottish manufacturing, both in terms of the quality of the work we do here and the expertise of the workforce. It is a validation of our strategy within Superglass over recent years and very personally satisfying for me to see further consolidation of the initial investment at our regional headquarters,” said Ken Munro, chief executive officer (CEO) of TechnoNicol UK, Ireland and USA which incorporates the Superglass business.
TechnoNicol operates 52 manufacturing facilities across Russia and Europe.
Johns Manville issues update on upgrade to Waterville plant
11 December 2017US: Johns Manville has issued information about an upgrade to the furnace of its Waterville plant in Ohio that took place in the summer of 2017. The work re-started the plant’s furnace and increased its production capacity. The site produces a range of engineered products, such as continuous glass fibres for insulation, composites, building materials and engineered thermoplastic market.
Saint-Gobain Isover to restart glass wool production line at Ploiesti plant in Romania
04 December 2017Romania: Saint-Gobain Isover plans to reopen its glass wool production line at its Ploiesti plant in July 2018. The line is expected to restart following a complete furnace rebuild and other upgrades. 50 new jobs will be created in production, logistics and administrative departments.
“The production line allows Isover to adapt its glass wool production capacity to the market demand in the region, given that Romanian market is the largest of the South-East European region. Our decision was generated by the positive trend registered by the construction market in the past year, a trend that is expected to continue over the next years as well,” said Ovidiu Pascutiu, General Manager for Saint-Gobain Rigips and Isover Romania.
Isover has also announced plans to upgrade its stone wool production line at the Ploiesti plant in 2018. The production capacity of the line will be increased by 30,000t/yr in 2019 following the Euro50m upgrade.
Rockwool plant for Romania
27 November 2017Romania: Rockwool Group has announced plans to build a basalt mineral wool production plant in Romania, a project worth an estimated Euro50m. The basalt mineral wool plant, Rockwool Group's first in Romania, will create around 150 jobs, while an additional 300 will be created indirectly in services and logistics, Rockwool said in a press release. The process of issuing permits and authorisations was already initiated, so that production of basalt mineral wool is expected to start in 2019.
The new production unit will spread over approximately 30 hectares in Ariceştii Rahtivani commune near the southern city of Ploiesti. The project will strengthen the group's strong presence in Romania, a market that has been active for almost 20 years through its local sales branch.
The plant will contribute to the growth of the local economy, given that most of the raw materials and logistics services will come from Romania, and most of the workforce directly employed by Rockwool or the subcontractors will be local, the company said.
"This investment will allow us to better support Romania's efforts to increase fire safety and energy efficiency in its buildings,” said Rockwool Group’s Senior Vice President Gilles Maria. “We encourage the government to continue to work with the EU Member States within the Firefighting Information Exchange Platform (FIEP) as well as other initiatives that will improve the fire safety regulations.”
PolyStyreneLoop Cooperative launches recycling project
13 November 2017Netherlands: The PolyStyreneLoop (PSL) Cooperative has inaugurated the European expanded polystyrene (EPS) / extruded polystyrene insulation (XPS) industry’s closed-loop project for the recycling of polystyrene (PS) insulation foam waste in Amsterdam. The research is testing a concept to dissolve the recently restricted chemical, Hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), from PS foam waste while also allowing for the recovery of bromine, which can then be used again for the production of new flame retardants. The PSL project is intended to help the European Union (EU) deal with an expected 20Mt of insulation material containing HBCD that will need to be disposed of in the next 50 years.
The PolyStyreneLoop demonstration plant aims to begin operations in 2018 and will have the capacity to treat up to 3300t/yr of PS waste. Once up and running, the PolyStyreneLoop project will be able to cope with incoming PS foam waste streams and produce recyclate that could be used in new PS foam insulation installations. The new initiative has been financed and built by the 56 members and supporters of the PolyStyreneLoop Cooperative. The EU has also supported it financially.
The association for European Manufacturers of Expanded Polystyrene (EUMEPS) said that recycling PS foam typically saves as much as 50% CO2 emissions compared to using it for energy recovery. It added that it believes that the technology it is testing offers an additional contribution to resource efficiency at the end-of-life phase for PS foam insulation, on top of the CO2 emissions already saved by reducing energy consumption during the long-use phase of a building.
Rockwool targets full production at Bohumin plant
13 November 2017Czech Republic: Rockwool is planning to use its Bohumin plant’s full production capacity to make mineral wool in 2017. In 2016 the unit produced a record 4Mm3 of the product and so far it has produced 80% of this in the first nine months of 2017, according to the CIA news agency. The increased production levels follow an upgrade at the site in 2015. Insulation products from Bohumin are sold locally, in Slovakia and elsewhere in Europe.